Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 Redux
by YolkaEd
Summary: What would happen if the story of Sonic 06 had been given more time to be done properly? The gameplay would still suffer, but the story would be something akin to this.
1. A Future in Ruins

**A/N: **Okay, I just want to get this out of the way; I'm still going to work on Piracy, but this was just too good an idea to pass up. Major props go out to SonicMovies on Youtube for compiling this game into a film, and BlackHawkOmega on for ideas on how to improve on it. So, I hope you people enjoy this little treat!

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_**SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2006 – REDUX**_

_**A Future in Ruins**_

_**The Psycho-Kinetic Hedgehog and the Pyro-Kinetic Cat**_

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Crisis City. What had once in a distant past been a bustling metropolis was now nothing more but ruins, with the streets down below filled with nothing more than lava, with a few licks of flame shooting out from down below every so often, the skies were covered in dark clouds, covering the entire city in darkness, with only the lava below giving out any source of light. At this moment, someone was floating over these ruins, a teal-colored energy surrounding his body.

_This world… it's been in ruins since long before I was born. _the creature thought, as he stopped his flight to observe the ruins. The creature was a hedgehog, though not one you would expect to see in the wild. His fur was a light, silver color, and a white, furry mane bound itself around his neck, being most prominent by his chest. From the back of his head, two elongated quills were sticking out, along with five quills pointing upward placed prominently on his forehead. Two white gloves adorned his hands, along with golden cuffs around the wrists, and his navy blue/white, teal-tipped shoes were topped by golden collars. Interestingly, the gloves, cuffs and collars had strange, teal-colored symbols on them, which were glowing stronger than the rest of his body.

_It is a harsh, bleak place, covered in eternal darkness. People live in fear, unwilling to see if the sun is still shining above us. _the hedgehog thought, as he closed his eyes, seemingly not noticing a large tongue of flame creeping up behind him. _Everyone I've questioned about how such a disaster could have happened won't answer me directly… but they always point… to the flames._

At that moment, when the flames had crept close enough to him, the symbols on his gloves shone a brilliant light, before the hedgehog spun around, delivering a powerful psychic blast to the flames, forcing them to disperse. _These flames… burning away at my world, destroying everything in their path. They are spawned from an eternal life-form, said to be impossible to fully defeat… The Flames of Disaster, Iblis._

"Silver!" The sound of a female calling out for someone caused the hedgehog to turn around, only to see a lavender-colored cat leaping towards him across the ruined skyscrapers. Upon closer inspection, the cat was shown to have four tendrils resembling feathers as hair, which were held aloft by a red, glossy ring. She was wearing a violet-colored dress, along with a pair of quite form-fitting, white trousers, a pair of white gloves with dense, fur-lined cuffs. and a pair of magenta-colored, high-heeled shoes. A red gem was also embedded into her forehead. "There you are; I've been looking all over this place for you! Where have you been, anyway?" she said, just as she landed on the building closest to the hedgehog, which was still a fair distance away.

"Well…" the hedgehog began, but decided to shake it off, noting the urgency in the cat's voice. "Never mind that, Blaze. What's wrong?" he asked, as he floated closer to the cat.

"It's Iblis." Blaze said, as she pointed towards where she had come from. "He's been spotted by the center of the city. If we don't fend him off, his creatures will spread further through Crisis City!"

Silver looked towards where Blaze was pointing, before nodding. "We don't have time to deal with his offspring, then." he said, before grabbing hold of the cat's wrist. "Let's go!" Then, without warning, he suddenly flew towards where Blaze had pointed at an incredible speed, passing by the giant skyscrapers in no time.

As they flew over the city, they would occasionally spot other anthropomorphic creatures running in terror from strange, unearthly creatures, covered in molten rock and flames, some taking the shape of avian creatures, others taking the shape of serpentine ones. "How tragic…" Blaze uttered, as she looked up at Silver, who tried his best to focus on the road ahead, rather than look down at the civilians in danger. "Silver?"

"As long as we can fight off Iblis, then his spawns will disappear as well." Silver muttered, as his eyes narrowed themselves. "That's how it's always been…" he trailed off, before suddenly landing on an alcove, just as he nearly collapsed on his knees. "Guh… I'm still not used to do that at such high speed. We'll have to walk the rest of the way."

"Thankfully, it's not too far from here." Blaze said, as she pointed to a pool of lava surrounded by a series of elevated platforms, where some armed anthropomorphic creatures already stood. "He was last seen around there." she said, as she helped Silver get on his feet, before the two of them started to leap across the buildings, not going as fast as before, but still at a moderately decent pace.

It didn't take them too long to get to the platforms, but instead of announcing their presence, both of them kept quiet, as they looked down into the massive pool of lava underneath them. The situation was incredibly tense, with not one of those present daring to make a sound. _Iblis… come out…_

Then, all of a sudden, a massive arm constructed out of magma and rock shot out of the lava, which startled most of the soldiers surrounding the pool, but Silver and Blaze remained stoic. Soon, another arm emerged from the lava, before a gigantic, four-armed creature made out of magma and rock shot out of it with a tremendous roar, its head covered in stone, and shoulder plates made out of stone also resided on the monster. "There it is! All units, fire!" one of the soldiers shouted, just as every one of them opened fire on the massive lava creature. "Don't let Iblis get away this time!"

However, even though they hit the monster with a massive amount of bullets, it wasn't even phased by this onslaught, but one thing they had gotten out of it was the monster's ire. With a roar, the monster raised one of its four arms, ready to slam it into the group of soldiers, who were still shooting at it.

"Yah!" Suddenly, just as Iblis swung its arm at the soldiers, the arm stopped moving, as Silver had moved in front of them, repelling the arm with some sort of psycho-kinesis, all whilst the teal symbols on his gloves were glowing brightly. "Leave Iblis to me and Blaze! We're not going to let him kill anyone else!" The soldiers looked from one another to Silver with a hint of confusion, just as they saw the arm slowly break free of the psycho-kinesis. "Go! I can't hold this forever!"

With that, the soldiers finally scurried away from the platform, just as Iblis broke the arm out of Silver's make-shift lock. With a roar, the monster attempted to crush Silver underneath its arm, when suddenly, a fireball slammed into the creature's skull, causing it to misjudge where it swung its arm, letting it crash into a ruined skyscraper, sending lots of rocks flying out of the structure. "Silver, don't try anything reckless!" Blaze called, as she ran up to the silver hedgehog. "There should be plenty of debris lying around. I'll keep him distracted while you find some to hurl at him, okay?" she said, before turning to the fire-monster, which was now crossing its arms.

"O-okay, Blaze." Silver nodded, before he ran towards the building Iblis had attacked, just as the monster uncrossed his arms, letting a rain of flaming rocks shoot out of his chest, which Blaze gracefully evaded, before hurling a series of fireballs aimed at the creature's head, all of which struck home. With a roar, the monster attempted to crush Blaze underneath its palm, but the cat was too quick for the monster to hit, as she leapt up on its arm, before running up it, blasting the monster's head with constant fire attacks.

Just then, a large piece of bedrock slammed head-first into the monster, causing an eruption by its left shoulder, sending the left shoulder plate flying off into the lava. Roaring in what seemed to be anger, Iblis attempted to crush Blaze once more, the cat now standing on the right shoulder plate. But before it could crush the cat, she leapt off it, landing on the platform surrounding the lava. "We got him now!" she said, before hurling yet another fireball at the monster.

"It ends now, Iblis!" Silver called, just as he telepathically lifted a piece of the building Iblis had smashed up in the air, before hurling it at the monster, hitting its head directly. Just then, it shot out a rain of flaming rocks at the two once more, but now, Silver was ready, grabbing most of the rocks in mid-air. "Take this!" Suddenly, he pushed all of the rocks he had grabbed back at Iblis, all of them detonating once they hit Iblis' armored head, which suddenly blew up, along with the right shoulder plate. "Is it over?"

"Not yet." Blaze said, as she held her right arm before her, flames beginning to build up around it. "Don't let your guard down." Just as she said this, the monster blew a massive stream of flames at the two, which Silver had the incentive to leap away from, but Blaze stood her ground, just as a shield of flames enveloped around her, preventing Iblis' attack from reaching her.

"Blaze!" Silver yelled, as he saw that Iblis wasn't going to end the attack any time soon, and even with her own flames protecting her, Blaze wouldn't last forever. "Damn… I've got to do something!" he uttered, just before he looked behind him, to see the ruined structure Iblis had attacked, which gave him an idea. "That could…" he uttered, just as he pointed his hands towards it.

Then, slowly, his gloves began glowing even brighter than before, as the foundations of the building began glowing as well, almost as if Silver was focusing all his energy at the weak spot from where Iblis had attacked it. "Come on…" he muttered, as the building began giving in to pressure. "It's working!" Then, suddenly pulling his hands backwards, the building slowly began to topple, threatening to crush anything in front of it, which was Silver's clue to get out of the way. "Blaze, let's get out of here!" he shouted, which led to the cat noticing what he had planned.

"Just give me a second!" Blaze called, before the flames around her began intensifying in heat, scorching the very ground she stood on. Then, slamming her palm into the ground, the shield around her blew away, taking out Iblis' flame breath at the same time, letting her leap after Silver once she was in the clear. "Now it's over…"

As she said this, Iblis just noticed the building that threatened to crash into it, but it had no chance to move away from the skyscraper, as it slammed into the monster at full force, sending both it and Iblis sinking into the lava, the monster roaring in pain, before it vanished beneath the molten rock. The soldiers that watched this could not help but suddenly cheer, due to their enemy being handed such a thorough defeat.

On a building overlooking where Iblis had once found himself, Silver and Blaze now stood, both of them resting against some ruined walls. "That should keep the populace safe for now." Blaze said, as she sat down, rubbing her temples.

"For now…" Silver repeated, as he slowly clenched his fists. "It's always 'for now'. Every time we destroy him, he always returns, sometimes without any delay!" In frustration, he slammed his fist against the wall, his eyes glaring into the ground. "It's a never-ending cycle! What's the point in all of this?!"

Blaze sighed as she looked at Silver, before she stood up, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You shouldn't worry too much, Silver…" she uttered, but Silver meekly pushed the hand away.

"Then… tell me what I should do." he responded, before looking away from Blaze. "Just how _are_ we going to defeat Iblis?" Blaze opened her mouth to respond, but no reply came, as she instead looked away from Silver. The truth was, no one had any idea how to fully defeat the terror known as Iblis, Blaze least of all, as she hadn't even been born in Crisis City.

Just then, a different voice chuckled. "Why, by knowing the truth, of course." it said, which caught both Silver's and Blaze's attention, as they looked towards the source of the voice, which was another hedgehog; his fur was a grayish-black, with different highlights of pale powder blue on his quills, arms, legs and by his eyes, and a white tuft of fur on his chest. What was most peculiar about this hedgehog was the fact that he had no mouth, as his muzzle was moving in correspondence to his speech. "Just as a flower comes from a seed… or a chicken comes from an egg…" the hedgehog muttered, as he looked down at Silver and Blaze. "…everything has an origin."

Blaze blinked skeptically, as she crossed her arms. "Who are you?" she said in a demanding tone; she didn't like the look of this hedgehog at all.

The hedgehog, however, merely chuckled. "How inconsiderate of me. You may call me Mephiles." he said, before he looked up at the clouded sky. "In order to vanquish the monster, you need to find the source of what caused this catastrophe."

Silver's eyes widened, as he stepped forward, looking up at this Mephiles-character. "So… that's the answer to our problem?" he said curiously, which made Blaze throw a glance at him, which he didn't notice. "Tell me, Mephiles… do you know who caused it?" he asked, just as the hedgehog looked down at them again, his emotionless gaze making Blaze a little nervous.

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Some hours had passed. In an abandoned building, there was one computer that was still active. At that moment, Mephiles entered the room, followed shortly by Silver and Blaze, both of whom eyed Mephiles with some manner of curiosity. "In order to fix this present timeline, you will be required to change what has taken place in the past." Mephiles said, as he walked up to the computer, just as both Silver and Blaze stopped.

"Change the past?" Silver asked, before shaking his head. "That's impossible. No one has ever been able to travel in time before."

Mephiles chuckled, as he slowly turned back to face Silver and Blaze. "That was before you met me. I have the power to travel in time, so getting you into the past won't be a challenge for me at all." he said, as Silver widened his eyes in surprise, whereas Blaze merely raised an eyebrow. "In order for you to change the past, you will have to kill the individual who awakened Iblis; the Iblis Trigger."

Both Silver and Blaze blinked upon hearing this. Killing a lone individual would be something not to be taken lightly, but… "The Iblis Trigger… If I kill him, will that save our world?" Silver asked, as Mephiles merely nodded, before he started to press some buttons on the computer's console.

"The day Iblis was released, spreading his flames into this world… The Day of Disaster. These are my records of the event." Then, the computer screen suddenly flared up, showing Silver and Blaze a series of images, documents and articles about this day, the events that transpired, and various bits of information. "And the one to blame…" Mephiles then said, as he slowly pulled a purple gemstone from his person, handing it to Silver, who grabbed it.

As Silver looked into the purple gem, he suddenly found himself in a field surrounded by flames, but the flames weren't actually real, so they did nothing to harm him. Then, in the midst of the flames, he could make out a figure surrounded by fire. "I see something…" he uttered, just as he approached the figure, who suddenly looked towards him, revealing it to be a blue hedgehog. "I see it!" Silver suddenly exclaimed, just as he was brought back to reality. "The Iblis Trigger was that blue hedgehog, right?" he asked Mephiles, who merely nodded.

Blaze, on the other hand, looked curiously at Silver, her eyebrow raised once more. _A hedgehog…? _she thought, before looking over at Mephiles. "You wouldn't happen to know the name of the Iblis Trigger, then?" she asked, as Mephiles merely shrugged, before Silver handed him back the gem.

"I know only his form, not his name." he said, before hiding the gem on his person, just as he generated something between his hands; a small, spherical cloud, consisting of dark energy. "Regardless, I shall send us all back in time… to the point when the Iblis Trigger was still alive." Then, releasing the cloud, it suddenly expanded to cover him, Silver and Blaze, just as all three of them vanished into thin air, leaving the cloud to disperse.

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In the middle of a valley connecting a forest to a large field, a purple cloud suddenly appeared out of nowhere, which suddenly dropped Silver off from it, just as it vanished. Silver blinked, as he looked all around him, only to see that he was alone; neither Blaze nor Mephiles were anywhere in sight. "Mephiles?" he called, as he looked all over the area, growing quite worried. "Blaze?"

When he didn't get any replies, Silver sighed, as he looked at the grassy field. "I guess we all got separated…" he muttered, just as he looked upwards, only to see the clear blue sky for the first time in what could be considered his entire life. "Wow… that's what it looks like…" he uttered, before looking down towards the valley, where a path was leading somewhere. "Iblis Trigger… If it means that my future can be fixed, I will do what I must!" With that, he rushed down the path.

As he did this, a great distance away, on a cliff housing some summer huts, Blaze found herself alone as well, though she kept her cool. "Hmm… so this is the past." she said, as she scanned the area around her. "I just hope Silver is okay. He's not exactly the type to be relaxed when he's alone." Then, after she spotted a town in the distance, she closed her eyes. "…somehow, I think Mephiles knew more than he told us about the Iblis Trigger than he wanted to tell..." she muttered, as she began her trek towards the town.

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**A/N: **Okay, I hope you people enjoyed this! So, will this possibly make Sonic 06 any better at all? Somehow, I doubt it, but regardless, I hope it is an improvement! Until next time, everyone!

**YolkaEd**


	2. A Plot Set in Motion

_**Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 – Redux**_

_**A Plot Set in Motion**_

_**The Free-Spirited Youth and the Hardened Agent**_

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Soleanna, the City of Water. Nighttime had befallen the canal city, but the liveliness of the town's populace could not be disputed, for tonight was a very special night; the Festival of the Sun, where the town honored their 'Eternal Sun God', known as Solaris. Fireworks were erupting in the sky, and all the people in town were cheering, even more so when a long, sleek-looking ship was rowed through the river separating parts of the town, with an ensemble of dancers entertaining the townsfolk.

The real reason they cheered so much, however, was due to a woman standing by the prow of the ship, who was waving at the townsfolk with a smile on her face. Her hair was a shade of red, with white feathers attached to her hair, and she wore a stellar-looking white dress. One thing of note was a dark-blue gem she held in the hand which wasn't waving. Soon, the ship stopped moving by a platform in the middle of the river, which the girl and some other women wearing robes stepped on, where a diminutive priest and some robe-wearing men were standing. When they were all gathered, one of the women handed the red-headed girl a torch, which she accepted with a nod, before she gazed into the flames.

Then, her eyes widened a bit, as suddenly, flames erupted from every corner of the city, engulfing it and everyone in the vicinity in its harsh tongues. The girl found herself floating in the air, as she gazed towards a gigantic tornado of fire, where in the center of it, a horrible monster covered in molten magma was roaring ferociously, spewing more flames out across the land, and-

"Miss Elise?" The sudden sound of one of the women's voice broke the girl out of her stupor, as she saw that everything was still alright; she must have had a daydream.

With a slight nod towards the woman who had woken her, Elise whispered a brief "It's… it's alright." to her. Then, she faced the priest and bowed in respect, as he and the others bowed as well. Then, as they straightened themselves out, Elise closed her eyes. "We give thanks for the blessed flames. May we always continue to have peace." she said, before she looked up at the structure before them, showing an angelic, bird-like creature depicted on a massive stone-chalice. "Sun of Soleanna, guide and watch over us with your eternal light…" she added, before placing the flame on the torch in a smaller chalice before her, which activated a chain-reaction that sent a number of flames flaring up towards the chalice, which now burned brightly, leading to the townsfolk cheering even wilder.

However, once the fireworks started again, and Elise began waving to the townsfolk once more, something else exploded from within the town; rockets, which rained down upon the unsuspecting city, taking everyone by surprise. While not to the extent of Elise's daydream, the city was now in flames, as smoke arose from a number of the buildings, but that was not all of their problems. Soon, a massive airship emerged from the smoke floating up into the sky, which suddenly dropped a number of robots on the platform, aiming their guns at Elise and the others.

Then, from the airship, a small hovercraft containing one person descended upon them, the person actually bowing before Elise. The man was a peculiar one; his entire physique was egg-shaped, and the only sign of hair his bald head showed was the impressively huge, scruffy-brown moustache on his face, right underneath his large, pink nose. He was wearing a white-trimmed, red turtleneck coat with some box-shaped, golden accessories on his chest, along with form-fitting black pants made out of what appeared to be latex. He also wore a pair of glasses covering his eyes, with navy-blue tinted lenses, and protective goggles strapped to his forehead. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Princess of Soleanna." the man said, as he stood up straight, looking down at Elise. "I am Doctor Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik."

While the name may have sounded ridiculous, most of the robe-wearing people on the platform backed a few steps away from Eggman once he announced his name, as did Elise. "You may wonder what my business here is, young princess. Well, I'm here to obtain the secrets of the Flames of Disaster from you, along with the gem that is key to unlocking its secrets… The Chaos Emerald!" Eggman announced, just as Elise took a moment to look at the gem she had been holding, most likely what he had been referring to. "Now, if you would kindly come with me, princess…" he uttered, motioning for her to enter his hovercraft.

However, before anyone could make any sort of reply to Eggman's request, a massive gust of wind surrounded the platform, as most of those on the platform looked around them in bewilderment, except for Eggman, who now had quite the annoyed look on his face. Soon, the wind died out, just as they heard someone whistle. "Now, now, Eggman; no one likes a showstopper!" this new character said, just as Elise and Eggman looked up at the still-aflame chalice, where a blue hedgehog was standing on the edge of it, a cocky grin on his face. "Speaking of, that was a pretty snazzy performance!"

As Eggman was clenching his fists in anger, Elise blinked, as for the briefest of moments, the sight of this blue hedgehog standing before the flames made her imagine a more different-looking, silver-colored hedgehog standing before the flames, though why this was, she couldn't comprehend.

"Grr… you just can't stay out of things that do not concern you, can you?!" Eggman yelled, before looking at his robots. "Don't just stand there! Fire, fire, fire!" Suddenly, all of the robots aimed their guns at the blue hedgehog, before suddenly opening fire, but for whatever reason, they hit nothing but thin air. Suddenly, one of the robots found itself with a large hole in its chest, as a blue blur passed right through it, just as it exploded.

Then, the hedgehog was suddenly standing on top of Eggman's head, yawning in boredom. "So that's your new toys, huh? I prefer the old design more; at least they went out with a smile!" he said in a smug tone, which agitated the doctor, but at the sound of guns cocked, his expression paled, as the robots were now aiming their weapons at both him and the hedgehog.

"Ha-hang on! Don't you see that I'm here?! Don't shoot just yet!" Eggman yelled at the robots, but they were too focused on killing the hedgehog to bother obeying, as they almost immediately opened fire, but the hedgehog kicked off from Eggman's head once they did, sending the doctor crashing into his own hovercraft, but saving his life.

Then, the hedgehog suddenly curled himself into a ball, as he shot out at one of the robots, smashing its circuits almost immediately upon contact. Then, the hedgehog bounced away from the smashed robot, slamming into a different one, repeating the process at a blinding speed which Elise had a hard time following. This, combined with the robots blindly firing at the hedgehog, led to the decimation of the robots on the platform. When only one of the robots remained, the hedgehog suddenly landed in front of it, the speed he had accumulated resulting in a brief sonic boom that knocked the robot senseless, before lightly tapping the robot with the tip of his right, red sneaker, which led to the robot falling into the water below.

"Who… who are you?" Elise uttered in a surprised tone, just as the hedgehog ran up to her, before suddenly grabbing her, holding her in both his arms.

"The name's Sonic!" he exclaimed, before waving good-bye to Eggman. "Sonic the Hedgehog!" Then, he began running off, plowing through the townsfolk that hadn't evacuated the place yet.

Eggman growled in rage, as he slammed his hands down on the dashboard on the hovercraft. "Damned hedgehog! You won't foil my plans that easily! ATTACK!!!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, just as a number of robots flew after Sonic and Elise, launching a plethora of missiles after them, but Sonic was moving at a pace so fast that the missiles either completely missed him, or just lost their forward momentum altogether.

As Sonic was running away from the missiles, however, a silver-colored hedgehog was standing on a roof, having seen these events take place. "I finally found him…" he muttered, as he clenched his right hand into a fist, just as one missile exploded not too far from him, showing that it was Silver. "…the Iblis Trigger." With a grunt, he leapt down to a building directly below him, the teal symbols on his gloves starting to glow, when…

"SONIC!" All of a sudden, Silver found himself being grabbed and subsequently hugged by a stranger, which surprised him, making him forget about the Trigger for a moment. "I finally found you! And you thought you could hide from me! True love always finds the way!" Blinking in confusion, Silver looked down at the one hugging him, only to see that it was a pink hedgehog, who was wearing a red, white-trimmed dress. However, as she stopped nuzzling him for a moment, she looked up to see Silver's face, before reeling back in surprise. "Wait, you're not Sonic!" she said, before bashfully pushing Silver away from her. "I'm sorry about that!"

Silver blinked as he looked at the pink hedgehog, before looking back to where Sonic had been running, only to see that he was gone; only the fiery trail of missiles that had missed the hedgehog remained. "No! I lost him…" he uttered, as he snapped his fingers in annoyance, which caught the pink hedgehog's attention. "I should have been paying more attention…"

"Oh, did you miss someone because of me?" the pink hedgehog said in an apologetic tone, as she approached Silver. "I'm really sorry…"

"N-no, don't worry about it." Silver replied to her, as he still looked at the flaming pavement down below. "I'm sure he hasn't left this island, yet. I'm certain that I kind find him."

As he prepared to leave, however, the pink hedgehog grabbed his hand, which startled him. "I'll help you out!" she said with a smile, which led to Silver giving her a dumbfounded stare. "I'm looking for someone too, and it'll be simpler to find them if we work together! So, what's your name?"

Silver wanted to protest, but the girl's sincerity just made it purely impossible for him to reject her proposal. "…I'm Silver." he said, just as the pink hedgehog yanked him away, heading in the opposite direction Silver had intended on pursuing Sonic on.

"That's a nice name! I'm Amy Rose. Nice to meet you!" she said, just as the two of them began heading out of town, despite Silver's protests.

Meanwhile, Sonic and Elise had outrun most of the robots that had pursued them, though a few more were still hot on their trail. "Um… may I ask why you're helping me?" Elise asked, just as Sonic leapt across the river in a single bound.

"No special reason." Sonic replied, just as a few robots stood in their path, but while Elise had a worried look on her face, Sonic grinned. "It's just what I do." Then, before the robots could open fire on the pair, Sonic leapt towards them at a great speed, throwing a kick at each of the machines, all without dropping Elise. "So, where can I drop you off?"

"You'll drop off no one, hedgehog!" they heard Eggman's voice say, just as something detonated in front of them, but instead of releasing a fireball, it released a cloud of gas, which Sonic and Elise accidentally inhaled. "Our game ends now, Sonic. You can go and save some Flickies in dreamland, if you're still intent on saving something." Then, above the two, Eggman in his hovercraft appeared, Eggman now seeming more collected after his tantrum earlier.

Sonic groaned, as he looked up at Eggman, when the effects of the gas knocked in, forcing the hedgehog onto the ground, and also forcing him to let go of Elise, who collapsed on her knees as well. "That's… cheap…" he uttered, just as both he and Elise collapsed on the ground, but not before Elise hid the blue gem underneath Sonic's body, without Eggman noticing it.

Chuckling, Eggman motioned for one of the robots Sonic hadn't destroyed to pick Elise up, just as the massive airship floated over them. "As you are so fond of saying, Sonic, 'I'll play with you some other time'." he laughed, just as he and the robots flew up towards the airship, leaving the unconscious Sonic behind.

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A number of alarms blazed, as a number of robots aimed their guns at the snow-covered forest before them, each of them ready to shoot whatever would emerge from it. Suddenly, a black-and-dark orange blur that emerged from the forest passed by them at an impressive speed, just as most of them exploded, leaving a trail of fire and destruction behind the blur's path. A larger robot suddenly moved in the path of the blur, which stopped to reveal a black hedgehog with different highlights of red on his quills, arms, legs and by his eyes, along with a white tuft of fur on his chest. Looking up at the robot, the hedgehog scoffed, before leaping on the machine's head, kicking off from it to leap over a structure it protected, letting it explode as he landed on the other side of the wall.

As a searchlight began scanning the area, the hedgehog stepped away from where it shone down, to make sure not to get detected by anything more than necessary. As he eyed the area, he heard a ringing in his ear. "That ought to be a mission update." he muttered, before pressing his finger against his ear, turning on an earpiece. "Agent Shadow here. I'm currently at Eggman's base."

"_Good._" a voice over a communication line said, as Shadow made sure to hide properly from the searchlights. "_As you may know, we haven't had contact with out agent since she entered Eggman's base, approximately 26 hours ago. We expect you to get her out there on the double, Shadow the Hedgehog. HQ, out._" Then, the voice clicked out, as Shadow looked down a slope of snow, where several robots were patrolling.

"Hmph." he scoffed, as he clenched his fists, looking down at the robot guardians. "She shouldn't be too far away from here." Then, he began descending down the slope, his shoes acting as a pair of rollerblades, letting the hedgehog skate on the air.

It didn't take long for the robots to realize that Shadow was heading right towards them, so they immediately opened fire upon the black hedgehog. However, instead of letting the bullets hit him, Shadow leapt over the incoming bullets, and as he got closer to the robots, he immediately kicked one of them so hard that its head flew off the body. "Don't get in my way!" he said, before leaping off the headless robot, which was gunned down by some robots trying to hit Shadow.

Before they could adapt to Shadow's speed, the hedgehog had curled himself into a black ball, which sped through an entire row of robots, leaving them to explode as he continued on his way down the slope. Soon, a much larger robot than before stood in his path, aiming its gun arm at the black ball rolling down the slope. However, just as it opened fire, the ball vanished from sight, just as Shadow reappeared right in front of the robot, delivering a kick aimed at its torso, which sent it flying right into the ground.

As most of the robots were rushing to attempt to stop Shadow, none of them noticed someone hiding in the shadows in a different part of the base. "Heh… looks like someone sprung an alarm. That's my exit cue." this female figure said, as she was holding something spherical in her hand, looking up at a searchlight nearby. "Of course, just walking out isn't going to help, so…"

Without another word, the female threw the spherical object at the searchlight, this object having a pair of small wings that carried it up to the lights, just as it detonated upon contact, taking out the searchlight and watchtower in a fiery explosion. "Bingo~" the female said with a smirk, just as she stepped out of the shadows, revealing her quite voluptuous figure. Her head was covered in close-lying, white fur, and a pair of bat wings was visible from her back. She wore a contoured, black jumpsuit that covered her from the chest down, which exposed her arms and upper chest, and she also wore a pair of elbow-long, white gloves and white long-stocking, high-heeled boots. The chest part of her jumpsuit was pink, and heart-shaped to boot. "I wonder which agent GUN sent to break me out of here… but I'm sure he wouldn't mind me taking some of Eggman's treasures."

With that said, she began flying towards a large door, guarded only by three robots on patrol, none of them bothering to look for whoever was breaking into their base. With a smirk, the bat took out two more of the spherical bombs, before breaking into a run, throwing them at two of the robots. Before they could react, the bombs blew up right in their faces, sending what was left of their bodies flying as shrapnel. Once the third robot registered this, however, it was too late; the bat had thrown a heel kick right at the robot's head, piercing it with the metal heel of the boot. As it fell to the ground, the bat simply smirked, before winking at the robot, as she pressed a few buttons by the door, which allowed it to open.

"That was just too simple! Eggman's got a long way to go before he can outsmart me." she said cockily, as she awaited the doors to fully open. When they did, however, her smirk immediately faded away, as she saw Shadow surrounded by tons of scrap metal, most likely from the robots that had tried subduing him. "Shadow… why did they send you?" she groaned, as she approached the black hedgehog, who noticed her approaching him.

"Rouge." he said bluntly, before turning away from her. "The president assigned me to fetch you." As he didn't say anything following that, Rouge sighed; he was still the same, no-nonsense kind of person she knew from their endeavors back on the ARK.

"Since when did you become the president's lapdog?" she said jokingly, something that Shadow merely scoffed at. As the two began heading away from the exit, Rouge pulled out a peculiar scepter, which radiated a strange, purple glow. "So, Shadow, you're not interested in knowing what this is?" she asked, as Shadow merely turned his head in her direction.

"I was assigned to get you out of here, not to discuss artifacts. So no, I'm not interested." he said, before turning away from Rouge, who sighed in disbelief.

"Be that way, then." she said, as she looked away from him as well. "You're all business, as always." Before she could hint at them looting the place, they felt a rumble, and as the two looked forward, they saw a plethora of robots aiming their guns at them, along with a large, robotic dog with a horn on its head, which snarled ferociously at them. "Huh. Guess they don't want us to leave the place." she said, as she hid the scepter on her person, before looking at Shadow.

"Too bad; I didn't ask them about what they want." Shadow replied, as he got in a fighting stance. "Let's just get this over with."

__________________________________________________

**A/N: **Hope you enjoyed this installment, people! And just to clarify, in this retelling, Eggman's costume is not the one he wore in 06, but rather his usual attire from Adventure and other 3D titles, so no more Captain Golden-Nipples or massive crotch from the Eggman! Also, a somewhat less obvious one; Elise is not 17 in this retelling, but rather 21, just for the sake of realism. Until next time!

**YolkaEd**


	3. A Daring Rescue

_**Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 – Redux**_

_**A Daring Rescue**_

_**Robotnik's Guard Dog: Egg-Hellhound**_

* * *

Almost immediately, the robots opened fire upon Shadow and Rouge, but none of them were foolish enough to remain where the bullets were headed; Rouge quickly took flight up into the sky, and Shadow instantly vanished from where he stood, before reappearing in front of one of the robots that had tried shooting them. Then, with a grunt, he kicked the robot straight in its gut, smashing its circuitry to pieces. "Compared to Doom's forces, this is child's play." he commented snidely, before aiming a back-handed punch at another robot, sending it reeling backwards.

Before it could recover, however, something that fell down behind it suddenly exploded, sending Shadow and what remained of that robot flying in the opposite direction. "I hope you don't mind me, Shadow." the hedgehog could hear Rouge say, before he looked up to see the bat flying above them, holding a bomb in her hands. "And I also hope that you're not against a little rummaging through this place later on?" she said with a wink, though Shadow responded only with a scoff.

"The president wanted you out as soon as possible, not when you were done looting this place." he said, just as he warped himself directly over a different robot, which he threw a diving kick at, crushing its head below his left foot.

However, he failed to notice the large, mechanical dog rush towards him before it was too late, letting the contraption ram itself into him, knocking him away from the robots, which began firing in his direction. Luckily, Rouge was quick to swoop down and grab him before the bullets could come in contact with him. "Aaw, don't tell me that the Ultimate Lifeform is losing his touch?" Rouge said in a mock-saddened tone, but Shadow didn't even bother to respond, as he warped back towards the robots, fully intent on taking down all of them. "Hrm… he still has that ego of his…" she muttered, before she looked towards the robot-dog, which had turned itself around after having rammed Shadow. "That's Eggman's security hound? It looks rather tame, if you ask me."

The dog suddenly howled, before it set its eyes on Rouge, and with a roar, it leapt up into the air to try and maul the bat, but Rouge was quicker, ascending to a level where the beast couldn't reach her. "Tsk, tsk… Bad dog. I'll have to punish you, it seems." she said, before she suddenly threw one of her bombs into the beast's still-open mouth, but even as it detonated and blew up within its jaws, the dog seemed to be unharmed by the attack. "Hmph, Eggman built you out of sterner stuff than his other bots, eh?"

As Rouge observed this, Shadow was at the moment busy with taking down the robots assaulting him, delivering a heel kick to one of them, which sent it crashing into another one, causing both of them to self-destruct. Without a word, Shadow quickly grabbed the machinegun of one robot close to him, ripping it off the arm of said robot, before he began peppering the surrounding robots with bullets. "If I wasn't on a mission, I could have done this all day." he scoffed, before he suddenly slammed the machinegun into the robot he took it from, followed by a kick aimed at its legs.

However, the robot dog quickly forgot about Rouge, as it rushed towards Shadow while he wasn't looking. However, a loud roar alerted the hedgehog to its presence, as he managed to warp behind it before it could ram him, though this resulted in the robots Shadow hadn't destroyed being crushed by the rampaging dog.

After warping, Shadow observed the dog as it ran towards one of the walls encircling them, but before it reached the wall, it did a complete 180 degree turn, staring down Shadow, who returned the glare. "It's persistent, I'll give it that." Shadow muttered, before he clenched his fist. "With a Chaos Emerald, I could have finished this much sooner…"

"Shadow!" Rouge suddenly called, which led to Shadow looking up at her. "Its head is covered in a strong kind of armor. We have to find a way to break it open; otherwise, we'll be here all night!" As she said this, the dog suddenly rushed towards Shadow again, but the hedgehog didn't do anything but raise an eyebrow at this.

"Break it open, huh?" he said, as the dog was getting closer and closer to him. "I think I have a way of doing that." Then, as the dog was about to run him down, Shadow suddenly warped again, but this time, he reappeared right above the dog's head, or rather, its horn. Then, without wasting this opportunity, Shadow grabbed hold of the horn. "Alright, mutt, now you go where I lead you."

Rouge raised an eyebrow at Shadow's 'strategy', if it could really be called that. "How is that going to…" she muttered, when she noticed that when the robot got close to a wall, it immediately turned 180 degrees around, as if it was actively trying to avoid colliding with a wall. "Wait a minute… Shadow, steer it on a different path! Try making it crash into the walls!"

With a nod, Shadow shifted his bodyweight to the left, forcing the dog to veer slightly in that direction. When it tried adjusting itself to the changed course, Shadow centered his balance, causing the dog to lose control of where it ran again. Then, he quickly shifted to the left, which caused the dog to collide with the wall head-first, and this in turn caused the armor around its head to crack open, before it fell off, hitting the snow with a loud clang.

"Perfect!" Rouge cheered, before Shadow leapt away from the dog, just as it shook its head, trying to regain balance. "Let me take care of the rest, Shadow." she added playfully, before swooping down towards the dog, throwing three of her bombs at the dog. "Bon appetite, beasty!" she said, just as the bombs blew up right on the dog's head, causing it to howl, but it still remained standing. "Huh, it's a tough one, if I might say so."

"It is weakened, however." Shadow said, and as he and Rouge noticed, the dog was wobbling unsteadily on its legs, as if it was going to collapse any second now. "All that remains is a finishing blow. Rouge, I could use a lift!"

When he said that, Rouge instantly knew what he had planned. "I swear, you and your reckless antics…" Then, she flew down towards Shadow, grabbing his wrist, before flying towards the dog as fast as she could, as the dog turned around to face the pair. "You think this'll be enough?"

"I don't." Shadow replied, before smirking. "I know it." Then, with a simple shrug, Rouge flung him towards the robot, and as he picked up speed, Shadow curled himself into a ball, which went straight through the hound's open mouth, and after a few seconds, it shot straight out of its back, a gaping hole left behind from where he had shot out of it. Howling, the dog took one step forward, but as electricity began dancing around it, it suddenly dropped down to its belly, before it almost immediately exploded, the force of the explosion nearly blowing Rouge out of the sky.

"Gnh… why do robots blow up like that, anyway?" she grumbled, as the explosion began dying out, leaving only a blanket of smoke where the hound had been lying in defeat. Once the smoke cleared out, she could see that Shadow was standing in the middle of the crater left behind, and unsurprisingly to Rouge, without any major injuries. "So, Shadow, ready to get moving?" she asked, as she descended down to his level.

"Moving out of this base? Ready as can be." Shadow said, until he heard the distant sound of rocket fire. "Tsch… we don't want to be hanging around here any longer; more of Eggman's goons are coming."

"Yeah, I hear them…" Rouge muttered, before she grabbed Shadow's wrist. "I'll lead us out of here." she said, before she flew towards one door in the encirclement they were in, entering it with Shadow before the robots could arrive to ambush them.

What they found inside the door, however, wasn't a convenient way of escape; rather, it was a chamber containing a computer, displaying a map of a city, with the actual city part of the map colored a bright green. "Well, well… Soleanna, the City of Water." Rouge began, as she observed the map. "Did you know that the city has a constitutional monarchy? The primary industries there consist of tourism and crafting precision machinery."

However, Shadow seemed to be relatively disinterested in the brief history lecture, as he turned away from the computer, only to be met with a painting of a red-headed girl wearing a white dress. "The current sovereign of the city is Princess Elise III." Rouge finished, as she too looked at the painting.

"Princess?" Shadow asked with a raised eyebrow. "If she is the only sovereign, doesn't that make her a queen?"

Rouge shrugged, as she looked back at the map. "Soleanna's royal titles aren't really the norm, from what I've gathered. Male sovereigns are called dukes, and female sovereigns are called princesses. Silly idea, but whatever works for the populace, I guess."

Shadow scoffed, as he looked away from the painting. "Why is this kind of place hidden away in Eggman's base, anyway?" he asked, throwing a glance at Rouge.

"Beats me." she replied bluntly, before she took out the scepter again, eyeing it with interest. "I just retrieved what I was assigned to fetch. But anyway…" Then, she turned towards Shadow, who had folded his arms at this point. "I need to ask a favor of you, Shadow. I need to get to the rendezvous point to get the item back to GUN's base."

Shadow raised an eyebrow at this. "You need an escort? That's something I usually don't hear from you." he said with a brief smirk, before it faded back into a neutral expression. "Where is this rendezvous point, anyway?"

After he asked this, Rouge pointed towards the map on the computer screen, at an area that was colored red, unlike the standard green. "The ancient Soleanna castle, located in Kingdom Valley." she said.

* * *

The morning sun seemed welcoming to the populace of Soleanna after the chaos that had transpired the night before. While it had seemed terrifying at the time, Eggman's forces hadn't done that much damage to the town, aside from a relatively small number of destroyed buildings and fires. As a result, reconstruction of the ruined parts of the city began almost immediately after the last spark of flame had been extinguished. However, there was a much more pressing matter at hand; Princess Elise was nowhere to be found.

Right now, there was a crowd amassed in one of the streets of the city, which someone in the distance noticed. "Wonder what the fuss is about…" As it turned out, this someone was a golden-yellow, two-tailed fox, who wore a pair of white gloves and a pair of red-and-white sneakers. He was holding a plastic bag with what appeared to be toy mice and a red cube within it. Out of curiosity, the fox walked towards the crowd, trying to find a way to get to the center, but the crowd was far too packed for him to get through.

With a sigh, the fox suddenly began rotating his two, fluffy tails at a rapid pace, letting him soar over the crowd so he could see what the commotion was all about, and what he saw stunned him; lying on the ground in the midst of the crowd was Sonic, still knocked out from Eggman's gas strategy the night before. "Sonic!" the fox exclaimed out of surprise, as he quickly descended into the middle of the crowd, before he began shaking the hedgehog. "Hey, Sonic! What's wrong? Wake up!"

After a while of shaking the hedgehog, Sonic suddenly bounced off the ground, rubbing his eyes and yawning a bit. "Urgh… I hate it when he pulls out the cheap shots…" he uttered, before he noticed the crowd around him, all of the people looking fairly shocked. "…how long was I out of it, again?" he said, before he suddenly noticed the fox looking up at him. After a short while, his expression turned from confusion into some form of joy. "Well, if it isn't Tails! Been a while, hasn't it?"

The fox, now known as Tails, simply scratched his head when Sonic acknowledged him. "Yeah, I've been a bit busy since the Black Arms Invasion…" he began, before he suddenly shook his head. "But more importantly, Sonic, why were you knocked out like that?"

Sonic was about to answer, when he noticed something lying on the ground where he had been lying; the blue Chaos Emerald, the same one Elise had carried on her person. "Eggman got the jump on me, nothing big." he replied, as he picked up the gemstone. "But from the looks of it, he managed to capture the princess, too." After he said that, the crowd gasped in collective shock.

"Eggman again?" Tails said, as he scratched his muzzle in thought. "Why would he want to kidnap the princess? He's not going to get his Eggmanland built from that… unless he wants ransom money?" he uttered.

"Well, not like it matters." Sonic said with a grin, before he hid the Chaos Emerald on his person. "I'll just have to beat old Egghead around a bit, and get the princess back. No sweat!" However, before he could blast through the crowd at a high speed, Tails stepped in front of him.

"Sonic, do you even know where Eggman went after you were knocked out?" he asked, which made Sonic hold his chin to consider this. Then, after the hedgehog shrugged, the fox couldn't help but let out a sigh. "Listen, I arrived at Wave Ocean last night to spend some time researching the city for a professor I know, when I noticed Eggman's airship headed towards the desert. I didn't know what he was up to, but from what you said, he's probably keeping the princess there."

"Y-you think Princess Elise is in the Dusty Desert area?" one of the bystanders said, which led Sonic and Tails to look towards him. "Mayor Regis has kept the gate to that area closed for some time, due to the increase in sandstorms there. We'll have him open the gate immediately, if you can bring her back to Soleanna!"

With a grin, Sonic gave the bystander a thumbs-up. "Sure thing! Just leave the princess to me!" he said, and with a nod, most of the crowd dispersed, heading off to the mayor's residence.

"Sonic, do you think I could help?" Tails asked, as Sonic threw him a glance. "After what happened with the Black Arms and Emerl, I've tried working out all the kinks in my equipment, so I should be of some use!"

"Do you even have to ask, buddy?" Sonic said with a smirk, before he rubbed Tails' head. "With us two, Eggman won't stand a chance." Then, with this in mind, the two followed the crowd towards the mayor's house.

* * *

In a secluded part of some Dusty Desert ruins, which resembled some sort of arena, Princess Elise sat imprisoned, though it was quite a lenient prison; she lacked any kind of shackles, and practically the only thing that prevented her from simply walking away from this was a series of bars, which seemed more modern than the rest of these ruins; possibly a redesign by Eggman.

However, despite this lack of restraint on her person, she didn't take the opportunity to run; rather, she simply sat in place, her head full of thoughts… and memories.

"_Remember, my daughter… be brave, and never lose hope in the future, no matter what happens."_

These words rang through her head, and served as a reminder to her, which made her adamant about this kidnapping; it wasn't the end of the world, she could still be saved… Her train of thought was suddenly derailed, however, when she heard and saw an explosion blow out part of the wall before her. "Tails, you didn't tell me that those things packed that much of a punch!" a familiar voice said, which made Elise stand up from her seat, just as both Sonic and Tails emerged from the smoke billowing out of the hole in the wall.

"Mr. Sonic!" she exclaimed, as she approached the two anthropomorphic animals. "It's so good to see you again…"

"Hey, don't mention it!" Sonic said with a smirk, before giving her a thumbs-up. "I told you, it's just what I do." However, as he turned around, he noticed Tails having a slightly serious expression on his face, as he was facing the bars. "Tails? What's wrong?" he asked.

"Well, it seems like we have a rat sniffing about in affairs that doesn't concern him." he heard a familiar voice say, just as the bars slowly opened, revealing a pair of menacingly-glowing, red eyes. "Or a hedgehog, to be precise." Looking up, Sonic, Tails and Elise saw Eggman hovering above the arena in his hovercraft. "Well, at least you were kind enough to come back with the Chaos Emerald, Sonic. Care to give it back, and forget about this little episode?"

With a smirk, Sonic waggled his finger at the doctor. "Sorry, Eggman, but that's not gonna happen. I'm taking Elise back to Soleanna, and you can go back to finding some monster that won't backstab you when you think you've won!"

This comment visibly agitated Eggman, but he managed to contain himself. "In that case, I shall simply have to take it by force. Let me introduce my latest creation, who I'm sure you'll have a great time with: the Egg-Hellhound!"

At that moment, the red-eyed creature from within the previously-barred area roared, before it leapt out of hiding, taking out a small portion of the arena in the process. As it turned out, it was a large robot dog, identical to the one Shadow and Rouge had faced earlier. Then, with a snarl, the dog pounced towards the group, but before it could crush the group, Sonic had grabbed Elise and ran a safe distance away, as Tails managed to fly after the hedgehog at an equal speed.

"So, that's your pet, huh, Eggman?" Sonic said with a grin, as he looked at the Egg-Hellhound, which veered its head towards the group again. "Alright, I'll play with him!" Then, placing Elise on the ground, Sonic rushed at the large dog, before leaping into the air, curling into a ball, and rocketing himself at the dog's head.

However, the moment he made contact with his target, he simply bounced harmlessly off it, without a single dent in the dog's armor. Seeing this, Eggman laughed. "Do you think I never learn, Sonic?" he said tauntingly, as the beast glared down at Sonic. "I specifically designed the Egg-Hellhound to be able to withstand your attacks, unlike the other machines I built to destroy you. In other words, Sonic, you can't defeat this one!"

As Eggman said this, the Egg-Hellhound suddenly leapt towards Sonic, and even though the hedgehog got out of the way in time, once the hound landed on the ground, it created a tremor that threw Sonic off balance, leaving him open for the dog to ram into him before he could avoid it. All the while, Eggman continued to laugh at his enemy's misfortune, before he flew higher into the air, just to make sure that Sonic wouldn't target him.

Both Tails and Elise could do nothing but watch as the hound continued its assault against Sonic, just as a small group of robots flew over the two, with the intent of reclaiming Elise. "Tsch… we can't just stand here!" Tails said, before he took out a pair of the toy mice from his plastic bag. "Elise, use these to take out the robots; I've got to help Sonic!" he said, as he handed Elise the mice, before he flew towards the battle between Sonic and the Egg-Hellhound.

"W-wait!" Elise called, just as she saw the robots approach her. In desperation, she threw the mice at the robots, honestly not expecting much to happen, but much to her surprise, once the mice got in contact with the robots, they detonated in a large explosion, taking out the robots and blowing Elise backwards. Naturally, she was flabbergasted at the sheer power of the mice.

Meanwhile, Sonic had stopped just taking and avoiding hits from the Egg-Hellhound, and began trying to assault the beast with Homing Attacks, but as Eggman had said, the hound took everything Sonic dished out with no damage done whatsoever. However, before Sonic had a chance at commenting on the unfairness of this, a yellow orb of electricity suddenly went straight into the dog, shocking it to the core.

Blinking in surprise, Sonic looked to where the orb had been shot from, only to see Tails hovering in the air, a red arm cannon now on his right arm. "Sonic, we can't just knock it on the head and hope that it'll fall over!" he said, as he flew closer to the hedgehog. "We have to think to take it down." he added, before he looked at the still-paralyzed dog, before he noticed the horn on its head. "…why would Eggman build a dog with a horn on its head?"

"A horn?" Sonic mused, as he began stretching his limbs out, like this was nothing more than a work-out. "I think I've got a plan." he added with a smirk.

Of course, Tails looked at him with some worry when he said that. "Don't tell me that you're planning on-" he began, when Sonic suddenly leapt at the Egg-Hellhound, before grabbing onto the horn, just as the dog snapped out of its paralyzed state. "…I hate it when he doesn't wait to listen…" Tails sighed, before the dog eyed him. Out of shock, Tails tried flying away from the robot dog, but it was quick to pursue the fox, intending to crush him underneath its mechanical paws.

"Hey, leave my buddy out of this, fleabag!" Sonic said, before he tried veering the dog away from Tails, and somehow, this seemed to work, as the dog slowly but surely was forced to stop pursuing Tails, as it began running unwillingly towards a large marble statue placed against the wall of the arena. Unable to change its trajectory in time, just as Sonic leapt off its horn, the Egg-Hellhound slammed head-first into the statue, which, like the last time something like that happened, caused the armor around its head to crack open, before it fell off.

Seeing this happen, Sonic smirked. "Heh, now it's my turn!" he said cockily, before the dog turned to face him, but now, Sonic was the one dealing the blows to the beast, as he shot his own body at the Egg-Hellhound's head, each time with more speed and ferocity, and the robot dog was actually taking damage from this. "What happened to me not beating this thing?"

"Sonic, catch!" he heard Tails call, just as he threw a quick glance behind him, to see Tails throwing one of the toy mice towards him. With a smirk, Sonic leapt in the air towards the mouse, before he snatched it in mid-air. Then, still in the air, he turned towards the dog, before he began spinning rapidly in a circle, just as he flung the mouse at its head, the added speed of the projectile resulting in a massive explosion that took out the beast's head.

With its head eliminated, along with the damage it had taken thanks to Sonic, the Egg-Hellhound collapsed on the ground, before its entire body blew up, taking out another good chunk of the arena. Seeing his handiwork, Sonic couldn't help but smirk, before he rushed towards Elise, who was basically speechless at this point. "You alright?" he asked, which brought her back to reality.

"Um… yes, I'm fine." she responded with a nod, before she got to her feet. "Thank you, Sonic." However, before Sonic could respond, they could hear Eggman growling in anger.

"I can't believe it! You were supposed to lose this time, Sonic!" the doctor yelled, as he slammed his hands against the dashboard of the hovercraft, just as a number of robots emerged from each corner of the arena. "Even if you could take out the Egg-Hellhound, you won't stand a chance against all of my-" Before he could finish the sentence, a orb of electricity suddenly struck the hovercraft from beneath it, and just as Eggman got a jolt of electricity coursing through his body, a explosion underneath it resulted in the doctor and the hovercraft blasting out of the sky, sending it and him rocketing away.

"Sonic, you go ahead and get Princess Elise back to Soleanna!" Tails said, as Sonic had seen his two-tailed friend shoot Eggman away with his arm cannon. "I can hold these robots off for you, so just go!"

Whilst Sonic wanted to protest, due to the robots vastly outnumbering them, the determined look on Tails' face was more than enough to convince him. "Alright, Tails. Just make sure to come back in one piece!" Then, scooping Elise up in his arms, he rushed out of the arena, just as Tails began shooting down the robots that tried pursuing Sonic and Elise.

Meanwhile, in a different part of the desert, at what seemed to be an oasis, Silver and Amy were approaching a different set of ruins, though while Amy seemed perky and fresh as ever, Silver seemed exhausted. "He wasn't in that temple, either…" Amy said with a sigh. "And I thought getting to Soleanna before Sonic would get there would guarantee me finding him! But I know he's around here somewhere!"

However, as she scouted ahead, Silver couldn't help but simply look down at the sand, before he sighed. "What am I doing?" he said in disbelief, which Amy coincidentally overheard.

Seeing Silver like that made Amy feel a bit guilty, as she scratched her cheek a bit bashfully. "Sorry. I promise that I'll help you find the guy you're looking for, after we've found Sonic." she said, though it only made Silver shake his head.

However, as the white-colored hedgehog looked upwards, he seemed to grow less melancholy, and more cheerful. "This looks… so beautiful." he uttered, as Amy only looked at him in disbelief. "Everything looks so magnificent. The grass, the sky, just…"

Of course, Amy had no idea what he was talking about. "What's so great about the desert?" she asked, though the question didn't break Silver's smile.

Then, he suddenly turned towards Amy, looking a lot more energetic. "Let's go! I'll help you find who you're looking for!" he said, before he grabbed hold of her wrist, and before she could protest, they were covered in a teal-colored aura, just as the two flew back towards Soleanna.

* * *

Separating the City of Water from the Dusty Desert was a large plain, covered in green grass as far as the eye could see. Right now, Sonic was rushing across the plain, holding Elise in his arms. "Sonic…" she began, as she looked ahead. "…I can't express how grateful I am for your help." she said, before she turned towards Sonic, when she noticed something. "S-Sonic, stop!"

With a confused look on his face, Sonic stopped running, before he let go of Elise. "What's wrong? More of Eggman's bots following us?" he asked, as she shook her head.

"No, but… you're hurt." she said, as she pointed at Sonic's left arm; sure enough, there was a gash on his arm, along with some dried blood going down his arm, most likely acquired during Sonic's fight with the Egg-Hellhound.

With a blink, Sonic looked at Elise with a blank look. "Oh, this is nothing-" he began, but Elise cut him off when she tore a small part of her dress off, surprising him.

"Don't say things like that." she said, as she knelt by Sonic, before she took the part she had torn off her dress to bandage the wound. "It could get infected, or…" she began, before she trailed off, leading Sonic to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "…I'm sorry. This is my fault…"

After she said that, Sonic couldn't help but grin a bit. "Just smile." he said, as Elise looked up at him. "That's all I need." he added, before he began walking ahead of Elise, as she allowed his words to sink in. "So, why did Eggman want to kidnap you, anyway?" he asked, before Elise began following him.

"I'm… not really sure." she said, as she looked up in the sky. "He mentioned something about The Flames of Disaster… It's said to be the name of the wrath our Sun God, Solaris, brings with him when his rage threatens the world. Stories say that ten years ago, we almost faced the full force of his fury." As she spoke, Sonic looked up at her. "I was a child back then, so I can't remember it too well, but they say that my father lost his life to protect our kingdom back then… and this Robotnik wants to bring about the same disaster again. What should I do?"

"You could stop worrying, for starters." Sonic shot in, just as he grabbed hold of Elise's wrist, surprising her. "Worrying about it isn't going to change anything, since nothing starts until you take action. So if you got time to worry…" he said with a smile, before he began running at a slower pace than usual, just so that Elise's arm wouldn't be torn off by the speed, but it was still faster than she was used to. "…then run!"

* * *

**A/N: **Yeah, I cut out the butterfly scene, along with Wave Ocean. Why? They were unneeded! So, I'll see you for chapter 4, then!

**YolkaEd**


	4. A New Adversary

_**Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 – Redux**_

_**A New Adversary**_

_**The Fight against the Iblis Trigger**_

* * *

Kingdom Valley. What had been the residence of the royal family of Soleanna was now nothing more but a collection of old ruins. At this moment, the two GUN agents, Rouge and Shadow, had made their way to the largest castle of the valley, where they would await their transport to arrive. "I don't see why you needed an escort, Rouge." Shadow said with a scoff, as he folded his arms. "Eggman's robots aren't that tough, and you know it."

"Hey, maybe I just enjoy your company, Shadow." Rouge said jokingly, before she took out the scepter, which still gave out a purple glow. "In seriousness, I didn't want Eggman's cronies to damage this thing; GUN wanted this without a scratch on them." Then, seeing as Shadow didn't seem a bit interested in the scepter at all, she looked around the castle they stood in. For being a ruin, it seemed to be in moderately good shape; the roof was practically non-existent, and a few holes riddled the walls. "Did you know that the former king of Soleanna lived here?" she said.

Shadow, however, simply scoffed in return. "No, I didn't." he said bluntly, without looking at the bat. "Why is that?" he asked, though Rouge could tell that he wasn't the least bit interested.

"Well, from what I heard, a terrible accident happened here ten years ago, and since then, this castle has been abandoned." Rouge replied, as she reaffirmed her suspicions; Shadow didn't seem to pay any attention to what she said. _Why do I even bother…_ she thought, before looking up at the sky. "Supposedly, there was a malfunction regarding a prototype energy engine that caused the accident. I think the engine was part of a plan called…" she began, when she and Shadow heard something equal to thrusters approaching.

"The Solaris Project." a certain voice said, and with a look upwards, the two agents saw a hovercraft come up from over the wall, with Eggman standing proud and tall, though they could see that his moustache was a bit singed, and a band-aid was plastered on his bald head, underneath his goggles. "A quite ambitious project, that was. It was named after their eternal sun god, you know."

While Rouge only looked at Eggman with some manner of shock, seeing as she hadn't expected to see that man follow them there, Shadow simply raised an eyebrow when he laid eyes on the scientist. "Doctor Eggman. It's been a while." he said, as he unfolded his arms, glaring at the doctor.

"Indeed, Shadow. And of course, there's you, Rouge." Eggman said, as the hovercraft got closer to the agents. "Don't assume that I didn't know I had a bat sneaking about my base, taking things that don't belong to her. So, hand over the Scepter of Darkness, and I may spare you."

A certain emphasis was put on the word 'may', and Shadow and Rouge soon found out why; as soon as the doctor was done talking, a large number of robots suddenly surrounded the two, all aiming their machineguns at them. However, some of them also had rocket launchers, as one of the robots fired a rocket at the two. Thankfully, the two avoided the rocket before it exploded where they once stood, and as Shadow began tearing up the robots that tried tackling him, Rouge took the strategic route and flew out of harm's way.

"I don't think so, bat-girl!" Eggman suddenly called, and before Rouge could make sense of things, Eggman had rammed her with his hovercraft, sending her plummeting down towards the ground. However, in doing so, he made the bat drop the scepter she had been holding, sending it falling towards the ground as well. "Oh… oh, no, no, NO! Grab that scepter, immediately!"

Thankfully, before Rouge could hit the ground, Shadow was quick to grab her and save her life, but even as the robots scurried to grab the falling scepter, it seemed to deliberately avoid their grasp, before it struck the ground, which somehow paralyzed all of the robots. After placing Rouge safely on the ground, Shadow noticed this, and out of curiosity, stepped closer to the scepter, which was now glowing even brighter than before.

However, the moment he stepped close to it, a black cloud shot out from the scepter, which began circling around the two agents, right over the paralyzed robots. "This isn't good! Pull back at once!" Eggman said in a slightly frightened tone, before his hovercraft flew away from the castle; however, none of his robots followed suite, as the black cloud merely plowed through all of them, which somehow managed to destroy their circuits, leaving them to collapse.

However, the cloud wasn't done, as the moment it plowed through the last robot, it shot high into the air, before shooting down, aiming to strike Shadow. Thankfully, Shadow had the incentive to leap back just before the cloud could hit him, leaving it to disperse on the ground. However, the part of the ground that the cloud had struck began distorting it, and Shadow soon realized that the area also encompassed his own shadow.

Soon, both Shadow and Rouge heard a sinister chuckle, as suddenly, a gloved hand shot out of the shadow, before grabbing hold of the ground, pushing a figure up out of the shadow. "Oh, how ironic fate can be!" a dark voice said, as soon, this character had pushed himself all the way out of Shadow's shadow, though his appearance was very surprising; it was a hedgehog, whose fur was a grayish-black, with different highlights of pale powder blue on his quills, arms, legs and by his eyes, and a white tuft of fur on his chest. What was most peculiar about this hedgehog was the fact that, aside from the lack of a mouth on his muzzle and his color scheme, he was in essence a mirror image of Shadow. "I would never have expected to be resurrected from your shade… so I thank you, Shadow the Hedgehog."

As this figure did a bow to Shadow, the hedgehog raised an eyebrow at the sight of him. "…who are you? And how do you know my name?" he said, though as he did, the hedgehog broke out of his bow, before he slowly lumbered towards Shadow and Rouge.

"Don't tell me that you've forgotten me?" the hedgehog said, as the agents got a good look at his eyes; they were green, and looked quite demonic. "I am Mephiles… Mephiles the Dark. And I owe much to you, Shadow."

Rouge blinked as Mephiles announced his name, before she looked at Shadow. "Another one of Doom's offspring, Shadow?" she asked, though Shadow simply shook his head.

"No… if he had been one of the Black Arms, he would've been dead." Shadow replied, as Mephiles continued approaching them. "Besides, he feels… different from them."

"I owe much to you, Shadow…" Mephiles repeated, as he stopped right in front of the agents, before he held out his hand, where a dark sphere began forming. "…and I can't wait to return what you gave to me; a one-way ticket to oblivion!" Then, the dark sphere suddenly expanded, as both Rouge and Shadow felt a surge of pain go through their bodies.

"What… what is he doing?!" Rouge exclaimed, as Mephiles suddenly began laughing. However, before anyone could answer her question, she vanished into thin air, startling Shadow.

"Rouge?" he said, before he looked at the still-laughing Mephiles. "Damn… where did you-" Before he could finish his sentence, he vanished as well, and not too long after that, Mephiles vanished as well, leaving the only sign that anyone had been in the old castle behind; a heap of broken robots, and a shattered scepter…

* * *

Back in Soleanna, Amy and Silver had returned from their search in the desert, but to the pink hedgehog's dismay, they still hadn't found Sonic anywhere. "Where could he be, anyway?" she mused, as she and Silver walked into a town square, not too far from the mayor's house. "Maybe he went to the beach? And he's waiting for me there? That's so romantic!"

Silver wanted to comment that Amy's thoughts were probably just wishful thinking, but he decided against it; after all, she could help him locate the Iblis Trigger without any hitches. Then, he suddenly heard something; a crowd cheering. Amy, however, was too absorbed in her fantasies to notice, so Silver turned his head towards the noise, when his eyes widened. "That's…"

By the mayor's house, a crowd of people had gathered, as Sonic and Elise both walked out of the gate, Elise heaving for her breath. "So, you're alright, I take it?" Sonic asked Elise with a grin, as they had practically ran all the way from those plains back to Soleanna, with them only taking a break when they were right outside the city.

"Well, I'm exhausted, but… I'm okay." Elise said, just as she noticed the crowd cheering, all of them happy that Sonic had brought her back. "Sorry for making you worry." she said to the crowd, though they didn't seem to notice her saying this.

Just then, however, Sonic's grin vanished, as he heard something. Then, he suddenly grabbed Elise, before leaping out of the way, just as something crashed into where they had stood. This was more than enough to startle both the crowd and Elise. "I've been looking for you." they could hear someone say, and as they turned to the source of the voice, they saw that it belonged to Silver, whose gloves were glowing a bright, teal glow. "You're the Iblis Trigger!" he said, as he walked towards the crowd, turning his head to where Sonic and Elise now stood, before he clenched his left hand into a fist. "Your actions will mean the end of us all!"

Sonic raised an eyebrow at this, as he folded his arms. "And just who might you be?" he asked, though nobody seemed to notice Elise's expression; she was looking at Silver with a look of disbelief, as he looked exactly like the hedgehog she had briefly mistaken Sonic for last night.

"My name is Silver." Silver replied to Sonic, as he was surrounded by a teal aura. "And in the name of the future… I'm going to kill you!" Then, he suddenly discharged the aura around him, creating a blast that blew the crowd away harmlessly, though Sonic and Elise stood their ground. "Anyone who doesn't want to get involved… leave now!"

Of course, the crowd didn't need more convincing than that, as they all scrambled to their feet, before running away from the imminent battle site, though as fortune would have it, they ran straight past Amy, which made the pink hedgehog look towards where Silver now stood, only to gasp in shock. "Sonic!"

Immediately, Silver's gloves began glowing brightly, as he threw his hands upwards, and before Sonic could notice it, a portion of the ground he stood on flew straight up in the air, with him still on it. Then, as the glow in Silver's gloves vanished, the rock plummeted to the ground, though as it shattered, Sonic was no longer standing on it. "What?"

Then, he looked straight up in the air, as he saw Sonic right in front of the sun, though this forced the white hedgehog to cover his eyes, the sun blinding him temporarily. Then, he felt something slam into him, as Sonic had spun into a ball before rocketing into Silver, sending the white hedgehog flying a distance away. "You said that you want to kill me? For what reason?" Sonic asked, as he began stretching out his limbs, getting ready for a brawl.

However, instead of answering Sonic's question, Silver's gloves glowed brightly again, before he launched a psychic blast out of them, though Sonic avoided this by rolling to the left; however, this allowed Silver to raise his still-glowing hands, forcing the ground to move like a wave of sorts towards Sonic, in an attempt to crush him under the concrete.

However, Sonic simply leapt over the incoming 'wave', before he attempted to rocket himself at Silver, but this time, he came to an abrupt stop in mid-air, as Silver was holding his hands before him, the gloves glowing, and a teal aura was now around Sonic's body. "You've got no chance if I can see you!" Then, Silver pushed his hands forward, blasting Sonic towards the wall of the mayor's house, but thinking quickly, Sonic landed on his feet on the wall, rather than with his back against it.

"Try seeing this!" Sonic retorted cockily, as he sprung away from the wall, before he began running circles around Silver, going at such a high speed that neither Silver, Amy or Elise could see anything but a blue blur. Then, Silver suddenly felt something strike his face, as he stumbled backwards, holding his face in shock. "What's wrong? I thought you were going to kill me!" he could hear Sonic say in a cocky tone, before he was struck at the back of his head; Sonic was moving so quickly that the blows he dealt were practically invisible to the naked eye.

However, even as he was pummeled left, right and center, Silver kept himself focused, as he closed his eyes. "I am… so just stay still!" he said, as he held out his hands, the gloves glowing brightly again. Then, both Amy and Elise could see that parts of the building walls were glowing as well, before the glowing parts of the wall were ripped out by a psychic force, letting Silver send them flying right towards him, which in turn, allowed them to strike Sonic, who had been too busy beating Silver around to notice the piece of wall flung towards him.

Before Sonic could recover from that, he felt his body being lifted off the ground, as Silver now walked towards him, his eyes narrowed with determination. "So you're supposed to be the cause of the future's destruction? You're not so tough when your feet aren't touching the ground!" Then, he suddenly flung Sonic towards a wall, but before Sonic could land on the wall like he did the last time Silver tried that, the white hedgehog suddenly forced Sonic to stop right in front of the wall, before flinging Sonic to a different wall, but still, he didn't allow the hedgehog to even touch any of the walls.

"Ugh… I think I'm gonna hurl…" Sonic uttered queasily, though that was far from enough to make Silver stop, as he upped the pace of his throws, sending Sonic practically bouncing from wall to wall, even though he never made any contact. Then, without any mercy, Silver took the momentum he had built up and slammed Sonic into the ground, creating a tremor as the hedgehog made contact with the concrete. Needless to say, Sonic was brutally beaten, barely even conscious from that impact.

As Silver moved towards Sonic to finish him, however, he felt something bounce off his head, and turning his head around, he saw Elise having thrown a pebble at him. "Stop it! What has he done to you to deserve what you're doing?!" she shouted, though Silver didn't take long to look away from the princess.

"He's the cause of my future's destruction." Silver said bluntly, as he lifted Sonic up with his psycho-kinesis. "For that sake, he has to die." Then, as Sonic looked weakly at Silver, the white hedgehog's gloves began glowing brightly. "Any last words, Iblis Trigger?"

Before Sonic could respond to this, they heard a scream, and a quick turn of their heads revealed some of Eggman's robots having grabbed Elise, before taking off into the sky. However, in that moment, Sonic found that Silver wasn't holding him. "Elise! Sheesh, why couldn't Eggman just stick to kidnapping Flickies?!" he said, before he prepared to rush after the robots, when he stopped; he felt that something was slowly crushing his throat.

"You're not going anywhere!" he heard Silver say, and throwing a glance behind him, he could see that his gloves were again glowing brightly teal, but it also looked like he was holding something, his 'grip' tightening every so often, and when that happened, Sonic felt a lack of oxygen; Silver was choking him with his powers. "For the future… you will die!"

At that moment, however, something suddenly slammed into Silver, sending him flying backwards, forcing him to release Sonic, who fell to the ground, coughing and heaving for air. As he looked behind him, he saw Amy standing before him, holding her trademark Piko Piko Hammer, and an enraged look on her face. "A-Amy?" he coughed.

Silver was quick to get back on his feet, before glaring at Amy. "Amy, move aside! I've got to take him out!" he said, as his gloves began glowing just a bit.

"Over my dead body, Silver!" Amy suddenly retorted, which made the white hedgehog lose focus for a brief moment, just as Sonic got on his feet.

"Amy… what are you doing?" Sonic coughed, as he looked at the pink hedgehog. "This guy's not your average mook. He could-" he began, though a single look from Amy shut him up.

"Don't worry about me, Sonic; I know what I'm doing." she said with a brief wink, before glaring back at Silver. "Just leave it to me!"

Sonic blinked, as he looked from Amy to where the robots had flown off with Elise, before looking back at the pink hedgehog. "…thanks. I owe you one." he said, before he turned around and sped after where the robots had fled, leaving Silver and Amy alone in the square.

"…Amy, do you realize what you've just done?!" Silver yelled, as he was struggling to contain his anger. "His actions are going to cause the end of my world! I have to kill him, and you just let him run off!"

"Shut up, will you?!" Amy yelled back, which really threw Silver off; the perky girl who had mistaken him for the Iblis Trigger seemed completely different now. "The Sonic I know would never do something like that!"

"But… but it's the truth!" Silver retorted, though now, he didn't sound too sure about that himself. "In the near future, he'll cause not only the devastation of my world, but also this one! So I have to-"

"It's not the truth!" Amy said, as she had now lowered her hammer, glaring at Silver with a hateful, yet at the same time pitying look. "I'm not sure who told you that Sonic would do that…" she began, before she closed her eyes, trying to hide some tears swelling up in her eyes. "…but I think you should learn to know him more before you take hints from strangers!"

Before Silver could try explaining himself further, Amy suddenly darted away, leaving the white hedgehog by himself in the battered town square. Needless to say, Amy's determination to save Sonic, the one he was sure of would cause his world's destruction, had affected him somewhat. _…learn to know him more?_ he thought, before hanging his head in defeat.

* * *

"Yah!" At the harbors by a newer part of Soleanna, a pair of robots would be turned into shrapnel by a pair of spiked gloves, belonging to a red echidna with seven, dreadlock-like quills hanging around his head. Along with the gloves, he wore a pair of red and yellow shoes, with sextuple-bolted plates on top of them. "That'll teach ya to mess with me." he scoffed, before looking to his left, where he could see Tails heaving for his breath. "You're alright?" he asked.

"Y-yeah…" Tails uttered, as he wiped his brow in exhaustion. "Though just barely. I just hope that Sonic got the princess back to safety..." he said, before he looked at the echidna, who was actually surrounded by robot scrap metal. "And… sorry for troubling you with this, Knuckles."

Knuckles merely smirked, as he stretched out his arms. "Hey, since when did I need an excuse to kick some robot ass?" he said, before he kicked away some of the scrap around him. "But why were you being chased after so many of Eggman's bots, anyway?"

Before Tails could answer that, they heard someone run towards them, and as it turned out, it was Sonic, though as they also realized, he didn't exactly look in the best shape; his entire body was heavily bruised, and a small cut on his head allowed some blood to run down from it. "S-Sonic! What happened to you?!" Tails nearly screamed in horror, as Sonic casually ran towards them, before stopping next to Tails.

"Sorry about that…" Sonic muttered, as he cracked his neck a little. "I had a little run-in with some guy, nothing big." Then, he noticed Knuckles, who was looking at him with folded arms. "Well, if it isn't good, old Knucklehead! Did Eggman tell you that I stole the Master Emerald again?"

"Hpmh. Very funny, Sonic." Knuckles scoffed, before looking at the robots surrounding him. "Some days ago, Eggman tried stealing the Master Emerald off Angel Island, spouting some crap about how he was going to use it to power something called 'The Solaris Project'. So, I followed him, so I could give him a reason to stay away from it, and all signs lead to this island."

Sonic nodded after Knuckles gave this explanation, before he looked at Tails. "Good to see that you're okay, buddy. You must've taken care of those robots, right?"

"Well… not all of them." Tails said, as he scratched his head. "Some of them managed to get past me, as they followed you and Elise, and soon, more of them showed up… so I had to get out of there. I'm just lucky Knuckles was here, or I'd be a goner right now."

After Tails finished speaking, Sonic snapped his fingers. "Hrm… I guess that's why they managed to get Elise again…" he sighed, before he noticed Tails getting a guilty look on his face. "Hey, don't blame yourself, Tails. I should've paid more attention to what happened back there."

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Knuckles shot in, as he looked at Sonic crossly. "You do know where Eggman's hiding right now, right? Because I think we all got a bone to pick with him." he said, as he cracked his knuckles, but before he could say something else, a spherical object shot itself out of the scrap underneath him, striking his chin. "Ow! Hey, what's this thing?!" he exclaimed, as he tried punching it, but it simply floated above his fist.

"No need to be so gung-ho, Knuckles." Sonic said bluntly, which made the echidna throw an angry glance at him. "But what is this thing, anyway?" he uttered, as the object turned around, until what appeared to be a lens looked in his direction.

"A projector?" Tails uttered, as he got a bit closer to the machine, when a purple light suddenly shone from the lens, showing a holographic version of Eggman. "Sonic the Hedgehog. As of this moment, Princess Elise is in my custody, in my base at White Acropolis. I'm willing to let her go… if you return the Chaos Emerald to me. And don't be late; there's only so long a hostage can be kept alive, you know." Then, the light died out, and the machine suddenly flew off, towards the mountains.

"Hmph… he's got some nerve, that Eggman." Knuckles uttered, as he watched the machine fly off.

"I don't like this…" Tails sighed, before he looked at Sonic. "This is Eggman we're talking about, so I don't think he'll let Elise go if we give him the emerald."

"Regardless, he did tell us where Elise was." Sonic said with a whistle, as he took out the blue Chaos Emerald, looking at it for a brief moment. "So, why not show up and thank him, personally?" he added, before he looked at Knuckles and Tails with a smirk.

Knuckles smirked back, as he slammed his hands together. "That would be a pleasure, Sonic." he said with a brief laugh.

"Well, if we're really going…" Tails sighed, before he pointed ahead of them. "There's a passage leading up to White Acropolis not too far from here. It'll take us a while, but we can probably reach Eggman before nightfall!" With that, the trio went in the direction Tails had pointed, though none of them noticed a purple cat standing by a corner of a building close-by, having heard everything that transpired.

_No doubt about it… that's him, alright._ the cat thought, as it turned out to be Blaze, who looked at Sonic with some manner of interest. _Why would Mephiles want us to kill him, of all people?_ Then, she looked towards a part of the harbor, when she saw someone sitting by the beach. _Ah, there he is._ she thought, before she headed towards that certain individual.

As it turned out, this person was Silver, who was looking out at the horizon, pondering upon what he had learned about the cause of the destruction of his world.

"_In order for you to change the past, you will have to kill the individual who awakened Iblis; the Iblis Trigger."_

"_I'm not sure who told you that Sonic would do that… but I think you should learn to know him more before you take hints from strangers!"_

These two sentences were the most prominent of what he thought about; on one hand, Mephiles seemed to be quite knowledgeable when it came to Iblis, but on the other hand, Amy was being sincere as she told him off. At that moment, Blaze finally reached him, as she looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "I've been looking for you, Silver." she said, but even though it made him look up at her in surprise, he didn't seem all that surprised to see her back. "I managed to overhear the 'blue hedgehog', as you called him, talk about going to White Acropolis. Shouldn't you be chasing him?"

"Actually, Blaze…" Silver sighed, as he looked towards the horizon again. "…I've been thinking. Is it really right of us, to kill someone in order to save the world?"

Blaze blinked. The last time she and he had been together, he seemed all too eager to kill the Iblis Trigger, to stop Iblis once and for all, but now, he seemed different. This made her chuckle a little, before she looked towards the horizon. "I can't answer for you, but personally, I think it's a matter of necessity. But you shouldn't ask others about what you should think, but rather, make your own decisions."

Silver tilted his head when Blaze said this, before he stood up, looking at the cat. "…you're right. I shouldn't be asking you that." he said, before he looked up at the sky. "I need to think of an answer to that myself… but for now, let's follow him. He went to White Acropolis, right? Let's go, then!" With that, he rushed off towards where Blaze had already come from, leaving the cat to shake her head.

_He's so naïve, sometimes… _she thought, as she ran after Silver. _I just hope he'll grow out of it soon._

* * *

**A/N: **Trying to make Silver a better character isn't as easy as one would think, especially with something like 06 to work on. But I did as best I could, and that's what counts in my book! Just remember to read and review, and I'll see you later!

**YolkaEd**


	5. A Rescue Gone Awry

**Sonic the Hegdehog 2006 – Redux**

**A Rescue Gone Awry**

**The Solaris Project – Eggman's Masterpiece?!**

* * *

Night had struck the snow-filled mountain that was the White Acropolis. Even though the damage done to the base of Doctor Eggman, courtesy of Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat, wasn't all that severe, the guard-bots were still on a heavy lookout, making sure that such a thing wouldn't happen again.

But then again, they hadn't expected Sonic the Hedgehog to storm into the base.

At this moment, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were rushing throughout the base, tearing down any robot who even dared stand in their path; whether it was from Knuckles' fists, Tails' arm cannon or Sonic's intense speed, they had no chance of avoiding the trio's attacks.

Soon, the trio happened upon a blockade of robots, that attempted to bar their progress any further, but upon seeing them, Knuckles scoffed. "What a nice guy, that Eggman is; gives us an invitation, and tried having us killed when we accept it!" he said, before he suddenly dug himself underneath the ground, and before the bots could realize what was going on, the echidna emerged from behind them, which allowed him to punch through the bots before they could react accordingly.

Even when they did react to Knuckles' strategy, it didn't help them at all, as Sonic was quick to curl himself into a ball, before rocketing towards the robots Knuckles hadn't already destroyed, demolishing them with his attacks. And even those he didn't destroy stood a chance, as Tails shot out orbs of electricity at them, shocking them to the core, before forcing them to self-destruct.

"I don't think he intended to have us killed, Knuckles." Tails said, as he flew over to the echidna and hedgehog. "The robots are just programmed to try and kill Sonic, and Eggman likely didn't think about reprogramming them just for this visit."

"Guess so." Sonic replied, as he began stretching out, obviously not regarding this as anything more serious than a simple workout. "But we're going into that base, and we're not being stopped by Eggman's toys!" he added with a smirk, before he began running ahead of the two others, which led Tails and Knuckles to sigh, before they followed Sonic.

After a short while, something appeared to block the trio's path once more, but instead of the usual drones, these were different; it was a trio of gray robots, each of them having large, brown and glossy eyes, with some sort of crest emerging from the center of their heads. "_Located! Located!_" the three bots said, as they suddenly dashed towards the trio.

"E-120 Phi?!" Tails exclaimed, as he tried flying away from one of the bots aiming in on him, but the robot aiming at him was quick to rotate its own arms around its body, simulating a helicopter, as it took flight after Tails. "I thought they were all destroyed after what happened with Emerl?"

"Looks like Eggman's got some packrat tendencies!" Knuckles scoffed, as he threw a punch at the robot attacking him, but it suddenly ducked underneath the fist, before throwing its own punch, which Knuckles couldn't dodge in time, resulting in him taking a nasty hit to the gut.

"Like we haven't faced worse things before!" Sonic shot in with a smirk, as he and the third robot were attacking each other at a great speed, making it nearly impossible to see the real Sonic. "These copycats aren't too tough!"

As he said this, however, the flying Phi-unit managed to ram into Tails, knocking the fox out of the sky. However, before it could fly after him to finish the job, Tails quickly aimed his arm cannon towards the Phi, before firing a barrage of electric orbs, though the flyer managed to avoid most of these attacks by weaving from side to side.

In the meantime, Knuckles and the Phi-unit he faced were exchanging blows at a rapid pace, with neither of them giving up any ground to the other. "C'mon! Is that all ya got?!" Knuckles shouted, as he tried slamming his fists against the Phi's head, though it simply ducked under this attack, before delivering a sweeping kick to Knuckles, knocking him off balance. Regardless, the echidna got back up immediately, and began attacking the Phi with even more intensity.

While that was going on, Sonic and the Phi-unit fighting him were chasing each other around the base, with them running on the walls and on top of smaller peaks scattered about the base. "Think you can overtake me?" he said in his usual cocky tone, the injuries he had sustained from his fight with Silver not even slowing him down.

The Phi Tails was fighting somehow managed to avoid all the electric orbs that Tails attempted to shoot at it, and in a flash, it shot itself towards the fox, trying to attack him with its spinning arms. Thankfully, Tails was quicker than the Phi, and before the gray robot could react to Tails' sudden movement, he had thrown a couple of his mice bombs at the Phi, and thankfully, it had no chance of escaping the ensuing blast, which meant the end for the robot.

Knuckles and his Phi were still exchanging blows against one another, each of their punches growing in ferocity each time they threw one. However, whilst Knuckles was showing signs of fatigue, compared to the robot, the echidna was far more dexterous than the Phi. "Get outta my face!" he yelled, as he suddenly threw a strong punch aimed at the Phi's head, sending it propelling off its body, and to finish it off, he threw an even stronger one into the robot's gut, sending it flying after the head, crashing into a wall and exploding.

At this point, the Phi Sonic was facing realized that it was on its own, but rather than attempting to run away, it continued pursuing Sonic, though it seemed that the robot would be able to overtake the hedgehog… until Sonic suddenly turned towards the Phi, running backwards. "What's wrong? Aren't you going to attack?" Sonic said with a chuckle.

This seemed to be enough to agitate the Phi, as it suddenly began boosting, rushing towards Sonic with an incredible speed. However, that seemed to be what Sonic wanted, as the moment it looked like the Phi would strike the hedgehog, Sonic simply leapt towards the robot, or rather, over it, which caused it to run right past him. "By the way, watch where you're running!" Sonic laughed, and the moment he laughed, the distracted Phi slammed straight into a wall, pinned to the spot.

"Alright, let's finish this!" Knuckles suddenly called, as he rushed past Sonic, before throwing a devastating punch at the Phi, crushing it circuits and demolishing not only its body, but also the wall it was pinned to, the hole leading into Eggman's base.

"Hey, looks like you're good for something, after all, Knuckles!" Sonic said jokingly, as he approached the hole, just as Tails flew up to the duo. "Alright, Eggman, time to pay up!" Then, the trio rushed into the base.

Strangely enough, compared to the outside, the inside of the base was completely devoid of any robots patrolling the halls, which worried Tails somewhat, but Sonic and Knuckles didn't seem to mind. Soon, they arrived in a large circular room, though like the hallways, it was completely empty… save for a single window, where Eggman stood in clear view. "You took your sweet time, didn't you?" Eggman said with a raised eyebrow, his hands held behind his back.

Knuckles looked up at Eggman, before scoffing. "Well, your machines decided to keep us company!" he said, though Eggman didn't seem to bother with the echidna, as his attention was directed at Sonic, who had folded his arms.

"Alright, Eggman, we're here." Sonic said, as he began tapping his foot impatiently. "So, where's Elise?"

With a sneer, Eggman shook his head. "You should learn to show some patience, Sonic." he said, before he stepped a bit out of the way, to reveal Elise standing between two robots, who kept their guns locked on her head, ready to fire in case Sonic tried something smart. "Now, if you value the life of the princess, you will give me the Chaos Emerald."

Sonic sighed, as he pulled out the blue gemstone, holding it so that Eggman could see it. "If you want this, maybe you should have your bots take their weapons away from Elise." he said, and with a brief nod, Eggman motioned for the bots to aim their guns away from Elise. Then, a small pedestal appeared before the trio, and with a brief nod, Sonic placed the Chaos Emerald on the pedestal, which disappeared beneath the floor. "So, are you going to come down with her, or are we going to have to come up and fetch her?"

"Oh, no, just stay right there…" Eggman said, as he suddenly began grinning. "This will just take a moment!" he suddenly laughed, before he pressed a button on a computer console right next to him, which suddenly shut down the door.

"Sh- a trap!" Knuckles growled, as he rushed towards the door, intending to pulverize it with a punch, but before he could even reach it, some invisible force pushed him backwards. "Wha-"

"What's…" Tails uttered, as he flew towards the door as well, but he was also blocked by the same force that blocked out Knuckles. "Don't tell me…" he said, as he moved his hand forward, only to suddenly retract it when he felt something solid in the air. "It's an energy barrier!"

Sonic looked back at Tails and Knuckles for a bit, before he looked up at Eggman. "What's going on? What did you do?!"

Eggman, however, merely laughed, as he began moving away from the button he had pressed, as Elise could only watch in horror. "I'm merely initiating a test run of my latest creation… though not complete yet, with the Emerald you've given me, it should work fine. And you three just so happens to be the guinea pigs for the Solaris Prototype's test run!" As he announced the name of this contraption, Elise's eyes widened in horror.

"Solaris Prototype?" Sonic said, before he clenched his fists. "What's that supposed to do?!"

Now, Eggman began cackling manically, as he now stood by a lever, ready to pull it. "The Solaris Prototype… will allow me to take control of time itself!" he said, before he pulled the lever, which suddenly created a portal of sorts in the ceiling in the circular room, and before long, it began sucking in Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, before they all vanished in a flash. The room was empty.

Seeing the trio disappear, Elise sunk to her knees in shock, as Eggman threw her a glance. "Don't fret, princess. They're not dead… yet." he said, before he turned to face her. "My invention has merely sent them flying across time… who knows where they'll end up? The distant past? The far future?" Then, he began walking towards a door in the room they were in. "But as I said, it's far from complete. I require the presence of a creature spawned from darkness… and what you keep hidden, princess."

The last comment made Elise look up at Eggman with a surprised look. "What I… keep hidden?"

Eggman didn't answer her question, however, as he opened the door. "My robots are currently hunting the dark spawn… when I obtain it, I will have all the necessary components to revive the Flames of Disaster…" Then, he began laughing. "And then, I'll be able to conquer this world!"

Suddenly, an alarm began sounding throughout the room, startling the doctor. "_**WARNING! BREACH DETECTED! INTRUDER ALERT! TWO UNIDENTIFIED CREATURES HAVE INFILTRATED WHITE ACROPOLIS!**_" a robotic voice sounded, as Eggman groaned.

"Hmph… I don't have time for that." he scoffed, before he pulled out a small communicator, turning it on. "I will be sending the Chaos Emerald to you, so if you think you deserve it, use it to destroy the intruders… Chaos Gamma." Then, he turned the communicator off, before looking at Elise, who was grabbed by a pair of robots. "So, princess… you would be wise to remain on my 'good' side." he said, before he walked out the door. "Take her to her cell." was the last words he said, before the door slammed shut behind him.

* * *

Silver and Blaze could only blink at the destruction that they saw ahead of them. The mangled pieces of metallic scrap, patches of melted snow as an indicator of explosions, and much, much more. "…you don't suppose they've already gone into the base?" Silver asked, as he looked around him, though the cat merely shrugged.

"In any case, I wouldn't head into it, Silver." she said, before she looked at the white hedgehog. "Though if they went in there, it'd be best if we waited for them right here."

Silver closed his eyes, before he shook his head. "I don't think it's going to be that easy, Blaze. The Iblis Trigger… he's extremely fast. For all we know, he could be back in Soleanna right now."

"If he was, we'd have noticed him run past us, Silver." Blaze said, as she folded her arms. _But I wonder… if he's here as well… does that mean that-?_

Blaze's train of thought was suddenly derailed, however, when the two heard something land not too far from them. "_SYSTEMS OPERATIONAL._" a robotic voice said, which drew the duo's attention towards the voice. As it turned out, it was a robot, though unlike the others Eggman had sent out, this was a more colorful variant, with red, yellow, orange and black features. Its head was small, yellow and platform-like, with its green, cylindrical eyes glowing within it. Its arms were quite long, with five articulation points, with both its hands being tri-digited, with two articulation points on each digit. The legs also had five articulation points, with wheels placed on its heels. "_TARGET ACQUIRED. INITIATE BATTLE-MODE._"

Then, without any warning, it suddenly crouched down, before the wheels on its heels began spinning, and with that, it drove towards Silver and Blaze at an incredible speed, just as its hands turned into drills. "Silver, watch out!" Blaze called quickly, as she grabbed the white hedgehog and leapt out of the way, before the robot could pierce them with its drills. "This one looks tough… I'll take care of it."

Of course, this comment surprised Silver, who looked at her in practical shock. "Are… are you sure, Blaze?" he asked, just as the robot stood up, before turning towards them again.

"I've dealt with worse." Blaze said reassuringly, as she looked back at the robot, before her fists became encased in flames. "Just stay back, alright?"

"_POWER-OUTPUT: 150%._" the robot said, as it aimed its arms out towards Blaze and Silver, just as electricity began dancing around its hands, and soon, an orb of electricity began forming in its hands. "_ENERGY FLOW: 150%. RELEASING DEVESTATOR._" Then, it suddenly launched the orb directly at the two, but whilst Silver got out of the way, Blaze allowed a shield of flames to envelop around her, just as the orb collided with her barrier.

However, as soon as the barrier was erected, it suddenly faded away from the electric orb's impact, and Blaze was still pushed back by the force of the attack. "Tsch… not bad." she said, before she began spinning around in place, like a spinning top. "But let's see you tackle this." Then, as flames suddenly enveloped her body, she shot forward at the robot, who was tackled head-on by this attack, sending it skidding back.

"_INITIATE PURSUIT MODE._" the robot uttered, as it suddenly crouched down again, before driving right at Blaze, and this time, Blaze had no time to leap out of the way, leading to her getting tackled by the robot. Then, before Blaze could pry herself off the robot, it opened its hands again, just as electricity began jolting through them, shocking the cat with the electrical burst. Then, as it stopped, it simply flung Blaze away from it, before looking towards Silver, who was genuinely shocked at how suddenly the robot had knocked Blaze out.

"You…" Silver hissed, as he clenched his fists, which began glowing teal, but before he could attack the robot, Blaze stood up again, a little weary from the attack. "Blaze… let me take care of it, Blaze! You could-"

"Silver…" Blaze coughed, as she glared at the robot, just as her fists became encased in flame. "…we're going to save the future from Iblis… no matter the cost, right?" she added, before she began hurling fireballs at the robot, who tried blocking them from striking its body. "Stay back. I can deal with this!"

Silver blinked at seeing Blaze so determined. He wasn't sure as to why she wouldn't let him deal with the robot, but nonetheless, the glow around his hands disappeared. _If you know what you're doing, Blaze…_

"_DAMAGE CONTROL..._" the robot uttered, just as its eyes suddenly began glowing, before it suddenly went into its drive-mode, driving out of the way of the fireballs. "_INCREASING POWER-OUTPUT. INITIATING RECOVERY MODE…_" Then, it drove towards Blaze again, both of its hands clenched. "_POWER-OUTPUT: 200%. ENERGY FLOW: 200%. STATUS: MINIMAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED. REASSUMING MISSION: ELIMINATE INTRUDERS._"

Then, just as it got in range of Blaze, it threw a punch at the cat, but this time, Blaze leapt gracefully over the incoming robot, as she whipped her hand around whilst looking at the robot, letting a whip of flames crack out from her hands, striking the robot when it was unable to counter. Then, before it could turn around, Blaze began hurling fireballs at the robot, but now, they didn't seem to faze it, as it stood up, aiming its hands at Blaze again.

"_ENERGY FLOW… MAXIMUM PERCENTAGE. POWER-OUTPUT… MAXIMUM PERCENTAGE. VICTORY… ASSURED._" Then, a barrage of electric orbs shot out from its hands, some of them colliding with Blaze's fireballs, some of them striking her, and some of them flying right past her.

_Damn… I have to end it with this!_ Blaze thought, as she closed her eyes, just as she stopped throwing fireballs at the robot, which in turn, caused it to stop shooting at her. Then, flames suddenly began enveloping Blaze once more, though instead of covering her in a dome, the flames took the shape of a large bullet-like shield, which Blaze was in the center of. Then, with a battle cry, Blaze stepped forward, the flames boosting her speed to an intense level, rocketing her towards the robot, who had practically no choice but to take it, sending it propelling away from Blaze.

As soon as the robot struck the ground, Blaze dropped to her knees, as the flames around her died out. "That…" she uttered, as she was heaving for her breath. "…should do it." As it turned out, the fire boost had taken its toll on her, as she was completely out of energy.

However, as it turned out, the robot wasn't done yet, as it stood up, electricity sparking out from its entire body. "_I AM… CHAOS GAMMA… I CANNOT… LOSE…_" it said, before it suddenly began beeping. "_MELTDOWN INITIATED. SELF-DESTRUCTION IMMINENT._" Then, crouching down again, it suddenly sped towards Blaze, intending to take her with it as it would explode. However, just before it would be able to grab the defenseless cat, she suddenly vanished, and with nothing to grab, the robot could only drive ahead for three more seconds, just before it exploded, leaving virtually no trace of its body left.

Blaze blinked, as she had anticipated that she would have been killed by the robot, when she noticed that she was covered in a teal glow. "Silver…" she sighed, as she looked over at the white hedgehog, who was also glowing teal, as he was pulling Blaze over to his side.

"I'm sorry, Blaze… but I didn't want to lose you." he said, as the glow around him died out, letting Blaze step down onto the snow. "I don't want this mission to end with only one of us making it back to our world…"

Looking at Silver with a perplexed look, Blaze couldn't help but smile. "That's quite remorseful of you, Silver. How do you expect to defeat the Iblis Trigger like that?" When she noticed that this startled Silver, she couldn't help but laugh a little. "I'm just joking, Silver. Thanks for helping me when I needed it."

With an uncertain nod, Silver nodded. "Right…" he said, before he looked towards where Chaos Gamma had used to be; now, there was only a smoking crater that indicated where the robot had been… along with a blue gemstone. "Hn? What's that?" Silver uttered, as he moved the gem towards the duo with his psycho-kinesis. "Strange… it feels like the gem Mephiles had…"

Upon seeing the gem up-close, Blaze gasped. "That's… a Chaos Emerald." she uttered, as she took hold of it when Silver got it close enough to them. "Yes… no mistaking it; this is the real deal."

Silver blinked, as he looked at Blaze with a curious look. "Chaos Emerald? What's that?"

"Chaos Emeralds… they're powerful gemstones, which are said to be able to unlock anyone's true potential." Blaze said, as she looked at the Emerald with great interest. "There are seven of them… if all seven are gathered together, the one who controls them will be able to unleash a tremendous force." Pondering about this, she closed her eyes. _So, this really is… no wonder everything's so different here._ she thought, before handing the Chaos Emerald to Silver. "You can keep this, Silver… as a lucky charm."

Silver blinked, as he accepted the gemstone from Blaze. "But… it was within that robot, right? You defeated it, so shouldn't you-" he began, but Blaze merely began heading off, surprising him, as he followed her.

"I'm giving it to you as a gift, Silver." Blaze said, without looking at Silver. "I'm sure you'll need it more than I do. Now, let's go; we need to find Mephiles."

As she said this, Silver raised an eyebrow. "Mephiles? Why do we need to find him? What about the Trigger?"

"I just need to ask him some questions." Blaze replied, as the two began picking up the pace, heading back to Soleanna. "Because I don't think he's been perfectly honest with us about the Iblis Trigger."

* * *

**A/N: **Yeah, I didn't feel like the Egg Genesis would fit as a boss for Silver and Blaze, but then that put me in a bind, preventing me from giving them something to fight in order to obtain the blue Emerald. Then, Sonic Battle came to mind, and I worked my way from there. So just assume that Chaos Gamma spoke like Omega does in 06, and when Omega comes around, imagine him with his Heroes voice. Until next time!

**YolkaEd**


	6. A Distant Time

**Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 – Redux**

**A Distant Time**

**The Fate of the Princess, Sealed?**

In Eggman's base in White Acropolis, things were finally looking to cool down, after not only Shadow the Hedgehog destroying one of the Egg-Hellhounds, but also Sonic and his friends taking out a squad of E-120 Phi robots, and the destruction of Chaos Gamma. At the moment, nothing seemed to be out of place whatsoever…

…of course, looks are deceiving. At the moment, inside of the base, a pink hedgehog was snooping around, looking for a certain someone, taking great care not to be spotted. "Sheesh… they went up here, didn't they?" she muttered, as she took a look around a corner, only to see a few robots standing guard. "I've looked all over for them, but they're just not to be found…"

As the robots began walking away, she quickly leant against the wall, making a mental note to herself. "I doubt that they'd be able to catch Sonic… maybe he already went back to Soleanna?" Then, she began walking down the hall. "I'll just have to look for him there, instead. He won't get away from Amy Rose again!"

"_Identity confirmed._" a robotic voice said behind her, which instantly made her freeze on the spot. Slowly turning her head, she saw a guard robot standing behind her, holding a rifle at the ready. "_Subject: Amy Rose. Capture-_"

However, instead of just standing there, Amy suddenly shrieked out of terror, before whipping out her hammer, furiously slamming it into the robot, sending it crashing into a nearby wall. However, only after a few moments of silence did she realize what she had done. "…oops!"

At that moment, the alarms began wailing in the hallways, as Amy quickly grew a bit panicked. "_**ALERT! BREACH DETECTED IN CELL BLOCK C-17! UNIDENTIFIED ASSAILANT RESPONSIBLE! SUBDUE AND CAPTURE!**_" a voice called, which made Amy panic even more.

"Oh, shoot!" Amy hissed, before she got ready to run away, when she noticed something in the hole the robot had created… or rather, some_one_. Slowly walking towards the hole was none other than Princess Elise, who seemed, more or less, shocked at such a feat being pulled off. "Hey… aren't you-"

Before Amy could finish her question, she could hear the sounds of incoming robots marching towards them. In desperation, she quickly grabbed Elise's wrist, before she began running away from the place, towards an exit. "We can talk about it later, I guess! Now, let's just get out of here!"

"W-wait, hang on!" Elise pleaded, as Amy began picking up the pace. "I can't run that fast! Slow down a little!"

In a rundown building, a dark vortex opened up in one of the hallways, spitting out two people from it before it shrunk away. "Gah… what was that about?" one of them uttered, as it turned out that it was Rouge who said that, just as Shadow got on his feet, shaking his head. "And here I thought that you resolved all the kinks in your past…" she added with a sigh, before she glanced towards a shattered window, where she saw something quite surprising. "Wha…"

As both her and Shadow looked out the window, they saw an entire city, completely in ruin, with lava floating down in the streets below. "...we've been teleported elsewhere, it seems." Shadow mused, before he folded his arms. "But where, I can't tell…"

"We won't find out anything by just standing here." Rouge said, before she began running down the hallway. "Let's find out where we are!"

Shadow nodded, as he began following Rouge, when he stopped himself. "…"

"_I would never have expected to be resurrected from your shade… so I thank you, Shadow the Hedgehog."_

"…Mephiles…" Shadow muttered, before he closed his eyes. "…who is he?" Shaking his head, he ran after Rouge.

It didn't take long for Shadow to catch up with her, and as the two walked through the building, they could see just how desolate the city outside was; there didn't seem to be a single soul out there, which would be a bit unnerving, if you weren't an agent of GUN. Nonetheless, soon enough, the two came across a different room, with a lone computer terminal, which for some reason was still shut on, being the only thing inside of it. Quickly, Rouge went up to it, and began fiddling with it a bit.

"This place doesn't seem too inviting…" Shadow muttered, as he looked out the door they had entered from, before throwing a glance at Rouge. "Any luck?"

Rouge didn't answer, but a sound from the computer made her smirk. "I'm in." she said, before she began typing on the keyboard. "According to this, we're currently at…" she began, when she looked up at the screen, only to lose her smirk rather quickly. "…wait… how is that…"

"What's wrong?" Shadow asked, as he looked at the screen as well, though as he did, his eyes widened with some surprise. "…we're in White Acropolis again?" he said in surprise.

"Th-that's not possible!" Rouge said in disbelief, as she began typing on the keyboard again. "We were in Kingdom Valley just a few moments ago… how could we've ended up back at Eggman's base?" However, at that moment, something dawned on her. "Maybe it's not a case of where we are…" Then, typing some more on the keyboard, she eventually found something that proved her right.

"…this database…" Shadow uttered, as he looked at the screen. "It was last updated… 200 years ago? So… we've gone through time."

"It could even be more than that, all depending on how far from our time this was actually updated." Rouge said, as she stepped away from the computer, before looking at Shadow. "So, whoever this Mephiles character is, we know that he possesses some form of power over time."

"…it felt similar." Shadow began, as he closed his eyes. "That power he used felt similar to Chaos Control. But…" All of a sudden, however, the two agents heard some sort of noise in a room adjacent to the one they were in, and out of curiosity, they began approaching the door leading to that room. However, suddenly following that noise was three different cries, followed by a thud.

"Ugh… that was unexpected…" they heard someone utter, though the voice was immediately recognized by both Shadow and Rouge, who eventually entered a room with a shattered window. Slowly walking towards it, the two saw a trio of recognizable characters; a red echidna, a two-tailed fox, and a blue hedgehog. "…where are we?" the fox uttered.

"Well, well… Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. I didn't expect to see any of you guys here." Rouge chuckled, which made the trio look up at her and Shadow. Once they saw her, she waved down to them with a playful smirk. "Long time, no see."

"Rouge! Shadow!" Tails exclaimed, as he looked from the two GUN agents to Sonic and Knuckles. "How did you guys get here?" he asked, as the two dropped down to their level.

"We could ask you the same thing." Shadow noted, as he walked towards Sonic. "So, how did you end up here?"

"We're here because of Eggman." Sonic shrugged, as he looked around. "He kidnapped the princess of Soleanna, and he actually got us in a trap, sending me, Tails and Knuckles to… well, he didn't really send us anywhere, from the looks of it."

"Wait… Eggman kidnapped the princess?" Rouge uttered, as she looked at Sonic with a baffled look. "What is he planning to do with her?"

"Beats me." Sonic shrugged, before looking towards the exit. "In any case, let's get outta the base, and back to Soleanna! Maybe some people there know if Eggman bailed from White Acropolis!" Then, before anyone could stop him, he ran out of the exit at a blinding speed.

"Sonic!" Knuckles called, as he growled. "Oh, for the love of- wait up!" he yelled, as he ran after the hedgehog, and soon, Tails, Shadow and Rouge followed the echidna. Shockingly enough for Tails and Knuckles, as they ran through the base, it seemed completely abandoned, and thoroughly run-down, as if it hadn't been in use for years.

Soon, they all reached the outside, but what they saw was nothing like the snowy landscape of White Acropolis; they were standing on a cliff, overlooking a ruined city, with broken-down runways which plummeted into pits of lava floating down on ground level. "…what…" Tails uttered, as he looked at this with a horrified look. "…what is this place?"

"White Acropolis." Shadow said, as he folded his arms. "Or rather, White Acropolis at least 200 years into the future."

As he said that, everyone but Rouge looked at him with a shocked look. "D-did you say the future?" Tails said in surprise.

"He did." Rouge nodded, as she looked around the area. "And the future doesn't seem too bright, if this is any indication of it."

"…but if this is the future…" Tails uttered, as he looked at Sonic and Knuckles. "…then that means that the machine Eggman had can control time!" he said.

"So that's what he was talking about…" Sonic muttered, as he recalled what Eggman had said before they had been pulled into the vortex his machine had created. "…I have to admit, that's pretty gutsy of him, to send us all the way here."

"Tsch… he's just lucky that it sent us here, or I'd have beaten him to a pulp…" Knuckles growled, as he cracked his knuckles with an annoyed scowl. "Now how the hell are we gonna get back to our own time?"

"…a space-time rift." Shadow uttered, as he snapped his fingers. "It'll take a lot of energy, but if we can create a space-time rift, we might be able to get back to the present."

"The question is, how are we going to generate that kind of energy?" Tails inquired, as he rubbed his chin in thought.

"…wait, I think I have an idea." Sonic said, as he glanced at Shadow. "You could use your Chaos Control to create a rift like that, right?"

"Not with just one Chaos Emerald, no." Shadow said, as he folded his arms. "With one emerald, you know that I can freeze time and warp great distances, as opposed to the short distances I can warp without one. But if we had two of them, we should be able to generate enough energy to be able to travel through time."

"But if you try to gather that much energy into creating a rift, it could end up killing you!" Knuckles said, as he looked at Shadow. "And frankly, I don't think we should sacrifice ourselves that easily!"

"Thankfully, we have a solution to that." Shadow noted, as he glanced at Sonic. "You haven't forgotten since the ARK, have you? How to use Chaos Control?"

Blinking, Sonic tapped his chin, as he recalled what Shadow was talking about. "…no, I haven't forgotten." Then, with a smirk, he gave Shadow a thumbs-up. "And if that was with a fake emerald, it shouldn't be too hard to try it with a real one!"

"Then I suppose it's settled, then." Rouge chuckled, as she glanced at Knuckles with a playful smirk. "Of course, unless someone begins feeling left out on being a hero."

"H-hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Knuckles shouted, before turning away from Rouge in a huff, folding his own arms, which got a chuckle from the bat.

"In any case…" Tails muttered, before he looked at Shadow. "…I take it that you guys don't have any Chaos Emeralds with you, right?"

"Correct." Shadow nodded, as he looked out towards the city. "…but I sense that there's one Chaos Emerald somewhere in the city." Then, he glanced back at Sonic's group, before tossing Tails what looked like a communicator. "Rouge and I will look for that one. In the meantime, you three can try and find some form of radar that can trace the emeralds from a further distance. Contact us via that when you find anything."

"Got it! You two be careful, now!" Sonic said with a smirk, before he, Tails and Knuckles rushed off in one direction, leaving the two agents on their own.

"…you two be careful…" Rouge chuckled, as she glanced at Shadow. "Did he forget who he's talking to?"

"He has a point, though." Shadow noted, as he and Rouge walked closer to the edge of the cliff, looking down at the city. "We don't know what could be lurking there, so we'll need to be on guard." Then, he looked ahead, before nodding. "Let's go!"

At that point, both of the agents leapt right off the cliff, with Rouge quickly taking flight, and Shadow warping from mid-air to a highway, which he immediately began skating down, with Rouge flying right after him. As they ran through the city, however, it quickly became apparent that it wouldn't be a walk in the park, as the ruined highways would often lead to dead ends, with the two having to take alternate routes just to advance further.

Eventually, the two heard screams of terror, which made both of them stop in their tracks, as they glanced towards where the screams had come from. There, they saw a couple of anthropomorphic dogs being chased by what looked like bats that were created out of magma. "What the… what are those creatures?" Rouge uttered.

"…whatever they are, we shouldn't let them do as they please." Shadow muttered, as he began skating towards the scene, quickly warping from the runway he was on, reappearing right in front of the bats. Then, before these creatures could react, the black hedgehog mercilessly kicked them straight into a building, before he landed in front of the dogs, who looked at him with shocked expressions. "…are you alright?"

"…y-yes…" one of them said with a nod, just as Rouge flew up to them, landing next to Shadow. "Who… who are you?"

"We're just passing by." Rouge said, as she glanced at the dogs. "You people wouldn't happen to know if there's a Chaos Emerald nearby?"

"…Chaos Emerald…" the dog uttered, as he rubbed his chin. "…um… I did see one of Iblis' golems carry something green. Maybe that could be what you're looking for?"

"Iblis?" Hearing that name, Shadow looked at the dog with an raised eyebrow. "Who is this Iblis?"

"What, you don't know? Iblis is…" the dog began, just as his eyes widened, looking past Shadow and Rouge. "…right behind you!" At that point, from the pool of lava down below, a massive tornado of fire burst out, spinning around with a destructive velocity, something that startled the dogs and Rouge, but Shadow seemed undaunted.

"_That's_ Iblis?" Rouge yelled at the sight of the tornado, which began sucking up empty cars from the ruined highways surrounding it. "If that's the case, I don't think we should stick around for introductions! Let's get-" As she turned to face the dogs, she realized that they had already ran away. "…out of here…"

"Rouge, let's go!" Shadow said, as he grabbed hold of Rouge, before he warped the two of them onto another highway, before they began running away from the massive tornado, which actually began chasing the two.

"Of all the things we could get chased by in this place…" Rouge muttered, as she glanced back at the tornado, which was slowly catching up with them. "Shadow, please tell me that we're headed towards the Chaos Emerald?"

"Don't worry; we are." Shadow nodded, as he kept on skating, without looking back once. "They said something about a golem holding it, so I guess we'll have to fight it first."

"You know, you seem awfully calm for someone who's being chased by a fire tornado." Rouge noted, as she glanced back at the tornado with a concerned look. "Don't tell me that you aren't the least bit nervous?"

"This isn't the worst thing I've had to deal with." Shadow said with a shrug, with only a mere glance at Rouge. "Neo Metal Sonic and Black Doom were a lot more challenging."

"…I can't believe you, sometimes…" Rouge muttered, as she looked at Shadow with a dumbstruck look. Just then, she noticed something above them. "…Shadow, look out!" At that point, she grabbed the hedgehog, before veering to the left, just as a car smashed into the highway, just inches from hitting the two. "Phew… that was too close."

Blinking, Shadow glanced back at the tornado, just as he saw that some of the cars it had picked up were launched at them, threatening to crush them. "…that's just great. Hold on!" Before Rouge could question him, Shadow began warping all around the highway, as car after car crashed everywhere they went. Thankfully, Shadow was quicker to react to the cars, which led to both of them surviving the onslaught.

Eventually, the two noticed a golem that looked like it was pieced together by lava and rocks ahead of them, and sure enough, something green was held in one of its hands; a Chaos Emerald. Unfortunately, it happened to stand on the edge of the highway, and there was no safe haven in sight. "Damn! A dead end!" Rouge said irritably.

"Not necessarily." Shadow noted, as he glanced at Rouge. "Do you have one of your bombs on you?"

"You need a Bat Cracker?" Rouge uttered, as she fished out a small, bat-shaped bomb, handing it to Shadow. "What for?"

"You'll see. Just be ready." Shadow said, as he suddenly warped in front of the golem, who didn't have time to react to Shadow suddenly hurling the bomb in its face. As it reeled back from that attack, Shadow began kicking it without holding back at all, causing it to stumble closer to the edge of the highway, before stumbling over.

"Got it!" At that point, Rouge swooped in and grabbed the emerald from the golem, as it plummeted down into the lava below. Smirking, she glanced at Shadow, just as she noticed how close the tornado was to them, whilst it shredded the highway to pieces. "Shadow, I think it's time we made an exit!"

"I agree." Shadow nodded, as he warped up to Rouge, as he placed his hands on the emerald. "Chaos Control!" At that point, both of them vanished, leaving the tornado to simply continue on its path, before it eventually died out, sinking down into the lava again.

"Ruins, ruins, nothing but ruins…" At the moment, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were walking through a building, still searching for some means to locate a Chaos Emerald. Noting how desolate and run-down everything was, Knuckles frowned. "If this is gonna be our future, then I'd hope for a way to prevent it."

"But how did this all come to pass…?" Tails uttered, as he looked around with a depressed look. "How could the future turn out to be like this?" As he spoke, Sonic suddenly stopped, which made both Tails and Knuckles look at him in surprise. "Sonic?" Tails uttered.

"Ssh." Raising his hand to silence the two, Sonic pointed at a doorway which was slightly ajar, letting them hear voices from within the room. "…if I kill him, will that save our world?" they heard someone say, and Sonic instantly recognized that voice; it sounded like the same hedgehog who had tried killing him earlier, Silver. Silently tip-toeing towards the door, he began listening in on the conversation, whilst Tails and Knuckles followed.

"The day Iblis was released, spreading his flames into this world… The Day of Disaster. These are my records of the event." they heard someone with a dark voice say. "And the one to blame…" Blinking, Sonic tried glancing into the room, but Knuckles pulled him away before he could do so.

"I see something…" they heard Silver utter, which piqued Sonic's curiosity, but Knuckles kept him from looking into the room. "I see it! The Iblis Trigger was that blue hedgehog, right?"

Hearing that, Sonic raised an eyebrow. _Blue hedgehog? That's me they're talking about, right? _he thought. _And he's calling me the Iblis Trigger again… who is this Iblis guy?_

"You wouldn't happen to know the name of the Iblis Trigger, then?" they heard a female voice say, though this one really surprised the three; it sounded awfully familiar.

"I know only his form, not his name." the dark voice muttered. "Regardless, I shall send us all back in time… to the point when the Iblis Trigger was still alive." At that point, Sonic finally ran into the room, but he was too late; whoever had been in the room were gone, leaving only the activated computer there.

"Guys, did you hear that female voice?" Sonic uttered, as he glanced at Tails and Knuckles, just as Tails approached the computer. "Didn't it sound familiar to you guys?"

"How could I forget?" Knuckles muttered, as he closed his eyes. "But how's that possible? Last I checked, she was in that other dimension with Nega."

"I don't know… but we'll have to figure it out later." Sonic replied, just as they heard a shocked gasp from Tails. "Hm? Did you find something, Tails?"

"I sure did! This is terrible!" Tails said in shock, as he looked back at Sonic. "I checked the database… and according to this, Princess Elise died after being captured by Eggman!"

"She died?" Hearing that, Sonic looked at Tails in shock. "Eggman couldn't have just killed her; he obviously needed her for something! How did it happen?"

"Um…" Looking back at the computer, Tails began looking through the database, until… "…it says that the engine on Eggman's battleship malfunctioned, which caused the entire thing to explode! And it all happened… two days after the Festival of the Sun!"

"So you're saying that the princess is gonna die tomorrow?" Sonic said, as he looked at his friend with a shocked look. "And since we're stuck here, we can't exactly stop it…"

"That's new, hearing you worry over a girl, Sonic." Knuckles noted, as he folded his arms. "I know she's the princess, but you don't even know her that well."

"Hey, I can't exactly let Eggman get the princess killed, can I? I wouldn't be much of a hero, if that was the case!" Sonic reiterated, as he glanced at Tails. "In any case, let's hurry and find a Chaos Emerald. The sooner we can get back to the present, the better!"

"Right! Just give me a few minutes…" Tails nodded, as he began typing on the keyboard, frantically searching for anything regarding a Chaos Emerald…


	7. A Struggle of Flames

**Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 – Redux**

**A Struggle of Flames**

**The Flames of Disaster, Iblis**

At the moment, both Shadow and Rouge were walking through a different part of the ruined city, with Rouge fawning over the Chaos Emerald they had acquired, and Shadow merely observing the ruins around them. Now that the tornado was gone, there seemed to be more people coming out of hiding, with a bit of unease.

"Aah, my precious Chaos Emerald…" Rouge purred, as she was eyeing the green gem with a mesmerized look. "That magnificent brilliance you radiate… no treasure in the world can top that…"

Shadow, however, wasn't too interested by the emerald in the slightest, as he eventually glanced ahead of him. What he saw, however, caused his eyes to widen. A distance away from them, a couple of anthropomorphic cats were observing a large robot, which seemed to be shut down. What shocked him was who the robot was.

It had a red and black torso, with four exhaust vents and silver box-accents with two thrusters on the back, along with a small, yellow platform-like head with red cylindrical eyes. Its arms were large and acylindrical, with several points of articulation, covered at the top by unwieldy black shoulder pads. Its hands were metal-constructed with 4 very sharp, claw-like digits as fingers, and its short legs had three points of articulation, along with large, black metal feet accented in red. Steel piping also embraced its waist, the front of which had a large box-like component with a green light, and its sides were covered in red metal flaps. Given the amount of dust covering it, it had to be shut down for a long time.

"…Omega!" Shadow yelled, as he skated right towards the massive robot, shoving aside the cats surrounding it. "Omega… how did this happen?" Growling, Shadow quickly got around the robot, before opening a small compartment on its back, which led to some database.

Seeing this, Rouge broke out of her fascination over the Chaos Emerald, flying towards the red robot. "…Omega…" she muttered, before glancing at one of the cats. "Do any of you know what happened to him?"

"N-no…" one of the cats replied, as he glanced at Shadow with a frightened look. "...this robot's been like this ever since he was first discovered."

"…and when was that?" Rouge pressed on, as she tilted her head.

"At least… fifty years ago, I think…" the cat said with a shrug.

Hearing that, Shadow closed his eyes, before closing the compartment. "…he's in standby mode." he muttered, as he clenched his hands together. "And I can't get him out of it…"

Rouge looked at Shadow with a concerned look. Shadow was rarely the type to be that riled up over something, but when it came to his closest comrades… "Shadow…" the bat uttered, as she placed a supporting hand on Shadow's shoulder.

Just then, a beeping sound came from Rouge's wrist, which made her break away from Shadow for a bit, as she pressed down on a wrist communicator, which was where the beeping came from. "…yes, this is Rouge." she said, as she nodded a few times. Due to an earpiece she wore that was linked with the communicator, only she heard what was being said on the other line. "…got it. We'll be there soon."

"…who was it?" Shadow muttered the moment Rouge pressed down on the communicator again.

"It was Tails." Rouge said, as she glanced at Shadow. "He said that his group found a signal southeast of here. We should get going there."

"Southeast?" one of the cats yelled, as he looked at Rouge in disbelief. "No way, man, you do _not_ want to go there! Don't you know that Flame Core's in the southeast?"

"…Flame Core?" Rouge uttered, as she glanced curiously at the cat.

"Trust me, if you think that it can't get hotter than here in Crisis City…" the cat began. "…then you're wrong! Flame Core's a freaking _volcano!_ Going in there means certain death!"

"Obviously, you people haven't heard of us two before." Rouge noted dryly, as she glanced at Shadow, who was still looking at Omega. "…Shadow, let's go." she said, as she walked towards the hedgehog. "Shadow. I know how you feel, but we can't do anything to help him…" Still, there was no response from him. "...Shadow!"

Shadow still remained silent, but soon, he glanced at Rouge, before nodding. "…let's go." he said, before he began walking away from the robot, Rouge following him.

"Come on, you guys! Can't you keep up?" At this very moment, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were rushing through what could only be described as a fiery wasteland, with lava pouring down into rivers of molten rock all around them, and only a path of solid stone keeping them from being burnt alive. "Hurry up, already; you've gotta check out this view!" Sonic said, as he was, of course, way ahead of Tails and Knuckles.

"We're trying, but… it's really hot, here!" Tails called back to Sonic, as he was trying to keep himself as high above the lava as possible, just so he wouldn't pass out from the immense heat around them.

"Oh, it's nothing!" Sonic said with a grin, as he began running backwards to see how they were doing. "I mean, Knuckles practically lives in a volcano!"

"There's a difference between having one on Angel Island and constantly spending time in it, Sonic!" Knuckles yelled, as he was trying to catch up with Sonic. Truth be told, the one who had it the worst there was Tails; Sonic was running too fast to even notice the heat, and Knuckles was more or less used to it, as he had been to a volcano more than once. "If you would just slow down, we'd… hey, Sonic, behind you!"

Hearing Knuckles, Sonic quickly leapt backwards with a somersault, letting him see a bat-like creature covered in fire narrowly miss tackling him. "Ah, some competition!" he chuckled, as he spun into a ball, before rocketing at the bat, crushing it underneath him, before he returned to running at full speed.

"Tsch… if that's how you're gonna play…" Knuckles muttered, as he glanced at a wall of solid rock they were running past, which thankfully followed the path without having lava fall down from the top. With a nod, he leapt towards the wall, punching his fists into it, as he began crawling across the wall, keeping up with Sonic that way. "Yo, Tails, make sure to keep an eye on Sonic!" the echidna called.

"O-okay!" Tails called back, as he took a deep breath, before picking up some serious speed, actually keeping up with Sonic. "Just remember, guys; the signal came from the volcano!"

"Yeah, we got that!" Sonic said, as he glanced back at Tails. "Don't worry about it; we'll get that Chaos Emerald, and we'll make sure that Eggman doesn't end up killing himself and Elise! Nothing's gonna stop-" At that point, the road suddenly stopped, but Sonic didn't, as he found himself hovering above nothing but lava. "…us?"

"SONIC!" Thankfully, before gravity could claim its ironic victory, Tails flew right towards Sonic at full speed, before grabbing him, saving him from being melted by the lava. "Phew… that was a close one…"

"Yeah… thanks for that." Sonic said with a nod, as he looked ahead. "…hey, Tails! We've got company!"

As he said that, a swarm of fiery bats emerged from the lava, flying right towards Tails and Sonic. With a yelp, Tails began flying away from the swarm, as it rocketed at them with an unnatural speed. "Where are these things coming from?" Tails yelled, as he looked back at the bats.

"I don't know, but let's not worry about it for now!" Sonic said, as he looked ahead of him. "We've got to get to that volcano!"

"It's not gonna be easy if I can't fend off the bats!" Tails called, as he glanced back at the swarm of bats, which was only gaining on them. "Sonic, do you see solid ground we can land on?"

"Nothing that's really close!" Sonic replied, as he glanced at the bats as well. "We can just fight them!"

"Not while I might accidentally drop you in lava, Sonic!" Tails quickly responded, as he tried as hard as he could to get away from the bats, though it seemed fruitless, as they only got closer…

"YAAAAAAH!" At that point, a massive chunk of rock suddenly collided with the swarm of bats, scattering the swarm and crushing a good portion of the bats. "We're almost there!" Knuckles called, as he had been the one who had thrown the rock, having pulled it right out of the wall he was scaling.

"Nice one, Knuckles!" Sonic said with a thumbs-up to the echidna, as he glanced ahead of him. "Finally; land!" As it turned out, they were right above a path that actually led straight to the volcano. Without any hesitation, Tails landed him and Sonic on the path, just as Knuckles disembarked the wall and glided down with them, allowing the three to resume their trek towards the volcano.

When they got closer to the base of the volcano, the three happened to notice two people who were already there; namely Shadow and Rouge. "…man, what took you guys so long?" Rouge said with a clever smirk, as she folded her arms while looking at the trio. "Keeping us waiting like that; you ought to be ashamed."

"What?" Knuckles uttered, as he looked at the bat in disbelief once the three stopped by the two agents. "How the hell did you two get here so quickly, and without us knowing?"

"You know, it helps to have someone who knows how to teleport just about everywhere…" Rouge began, as she pulled out a green gem. "…along with this."

"A Chaos Emerald…" Tails uttered, as he looked at Rouge. "When did you get it?"

"Not too long before you guys called us up." Rouge replied, as she placed a hand on Shadow's shoulder. "It didn't take long though; not with this guy leading the way." Then, she glanced at Knuckles with a sultry smirk. "I think a certain someone could take a page out of his book."

Hearing that, Knuckles instantly turned redder than he already was, as he stomped towards Rouge, right in her face. "You…" he muttered angrily, before turning away with a scoff.

"So, what did you guys find out?" Shadow eventually said, as he brushed off Rouge's hand, before glancing at Tails.

"Um…" Tails began, as he glanced at the volcano. Conveniently enough, the path up ahead led to a cavern by the volcano's base, which would lead them into the crater. "…we found a signal leading to a Chaos Emerald… and it came from the volcano."

"The volcano?" Rouge uttered, as she glanced at Shadow, who merely nodded in affirmation. "No way… it's already hot enough out here, and now we've got to go through a volcano, of all things?"

"You know, you can just stay if you can't handle the heat." Knuckles muttered, as he glanced at Rouge from over his shoulder, something that made Rouge scoff.

"Oh, like _you're_ going to order me around, Knucklehead." Rouge said in a condescending manner, which again made Knuckles spin around and glare at her.

"What did you call me?" Knuckles growled, but before he could continue, Sonic stepped in his way, waggling his finger at him.

"Let's try to be civil, until we get the emerald, alright?" Sonic said with a smirk, before glancing at Shadow. "How about I race ya, Shadow?"

"…if you insist." Shadow shrugged, as he gave Sonic a brief nod, before he began skating right towards the cavern. Sonic and Knuckles were quick to follow him, which left Tails and Rouge on their own outside.

"…well, we shouldn't keep them waiting, I suppose." Rouge shrugged, as she gave Tails a nod. "Let's go."

"R-right." Tails nodded, as the two flew after the others, right into the cavern.

The volcano, as it turned out, had a lot of paths twisting and turning about as well, like if someone had taken the time to carve them out by hand. Of course, that little factoid was of no interest to Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles, as all three of them were rushing across the paths at a blinding speed.

"Just don't try cheating with Chaos Control, Shadow!" Sonic said with a clever smirk, as he glanced at the black hedgehog. "If we're gonna race, we'll do it the fair way!"

"And apart from the ARK, when was the last time I _didn't_ race against you fairly?" Shadow quipped back, as he glanced at Sonic.

"Just be careful not to trip, you two!" Knuckles called, as he glanced ahead of him. At that point, the three saw several serpents made out of molten rock emerge from the path, along with more fiery bats, and there was even a golem like the one Shadow and Rouge had faced earlier. "Tsch… someone's keen on halting the race!" the echidna growled.

"Well, we'll have to show them just what happens, then!" Sonic chuckled, as he quickly rolled into a ball, and it didn't take long for Shadow and Knuckles to follow that same example. After building up speed, the three rocketed at the various enemies lined up before them, each of them easily taking out whatever enemies coming in their path. Needless to say, the three blurs rocketing through the volcano path didn't spare anything in their way.

As they were utterly destroying every single enemy in their path, Tails and Rouge were flying above them, with Rouge looking at Tails with a surprised look. "You're serious? The princess is going to die?"

"According to the database, yeah…" Tails muttered, as he glanced at Rouge. "We need to get back before that can happen!"

"No worries, Tails." Rouge said with a small smile, as the two were finally catching up with the three, as they had unfurled and were stretching out. "If this works out, we could travel back in time to a point before Eggman even tried capturing her to begin with."

"Yeah… guess you're right." Tails nodded, before the two landed by the three others, who just noticed them. "Shadow, are we getting any closer?"

"Yes…" Shadow nodded, as he glanced ahead of them. As it turned out, they were standing in front of a hole in the wall, which seemed to lead to a chamber. "It's in there." he said, before walking towards the hole, but not before Sonic suddenly rushed past him, stopping right besides it.

"I win!" Sonic said with a laugh, before looking up at the hole. "Alright, enough games. It's time to get that emerald!" As he said that, he walked into the chamber, with the others following him.

The chamber, as it turned out, was enormous, with only one platform keeping the group from falling into the lava. Looking upwards, they saw a cyan gemstone floating up above them; a Chaos Emerald. With a brief chuckle, Rouge quickly flew up towards the gem. "Another emerald for the collection…" she uttered, as she moved her hand to grab the gem.

However, before she could do that, Shadow suddenly warped behind her and grabbed hold of her, before quickly warping back on the platform. "Agh! Hey, what-" Rouge began, but at that point, a massive serpent coated in molten rock shot out of the lava, before consuming the emerald with one massive bite. "…what the hell is that?" the bat yelled.

"…I think it's…" Shadow uttered, as he tilted his head. "…Iblis." As he said that, however, Sonic quickly glanced at the black hedgehog.

"Did you just say…Iblis?" he inquired, before looking up at the snake. _Iblis… so that Iblis Trigger was gonna release _that _thing?_ he thought.

"Wait, I thought that tornado we escaped was Iblis!" Rouge said, as she glanced at Shadow as well. "How can this snake be Iblis, too?"

"I have a feeling…" Shadow muttered, before letting go of Rouge. "…the tornado, the fiery creatures we've fought… somehow, I get the feeling that this serpent is the cause of all that."

"Look, who cares about that?" Knuckles suddenly yelled, as he pointed right at Iblis. "That thing just ate the Chaos Emerald!" Roaring, the echidna immediately rushed at the serpent, his fists clenched. "I'm gonna crush that thing into paste!" Before anyone could stop him, he leapt towards the serpent, just as the hot air was caught by his quills, letting Knuckles glide in the air towards it.

"What an…" Sonic uttered, before glancing at Tails. "Yo, Tails, give me a lift!"

"Um… okay!" Tails nodded a bit uneasily, as he grabbed hold of Sonic, before flying right towards Iblis as well. As he flew towards him, he got a better view of how the serpent was built; its belly was coated in nothing but lava, and its back and head was covered in an armor of solid rock. It also had green eyes, for some reason. "Sonic, where should we land?" the fox eventually asked.

"Where else? The head!" Sonic replied, as he pointed right at Iblis' head, which Knuckles had already latched onto. "Just make sure not to get burned!"

"I could've figured that out on my own…" Tails noted, as he flew closer to the snake. When he got close enough to its head, Sonic motioned for Tails to let go, which he did, letting Sonic land on Iblis' head.

"YOU'D BETTER SPIT UP THAT CHAOS EMERALD, YOU OVERGROWN SNAKE!" Knuckles roared, as he was furiously punching at the snake's armor, but even his fists weren't enough to break through it. "Come on, break already!" he yelled.

"I don't think it's gonna listen to you, Knuckles!" Sonic laughed, as he held onto one of Iblis' horns, as he glanced at one of the green eyes. In that instant, a wicked grin crawled over his muzzle. "Let's see how he likes this!" he said, before he spun into a ball, and slammed right into the eye.

Predictably enough, the beast roared in abject agony once Sonic collided with his target, though its roars of pain were accentuated by it violently trashing about, which threatened to throw both Sonic and Knuckles off it. "Sonic, that just made it angrier!" Knuckles yelled, as he strived to hold on.

"Like your punches were doing any good!" Sonic quipped back, but at that point, the beast stopped. "Eh?"

As it turned out, Shadow was standing on the very edge of the platform, holding out the green Chaos Emerald, which was giving out a brilliant glow. "Let's see if you like this…" Shadow muttered.

"Shadow, what are you doing?" Rouge called from up above him, as she glanced at Iblis, who seemed quite interested in that glow.

"It seemed to be attracted to the cyan-colored emerald." Shadow noted, as he cracked his neck. "I'm trying to see if it'll be enticed by this. Just be ready to attack it on my signal." Then, he glanced up at Tails, who was also watching Shadow. "The same goes to you, Prower!"

At that point, Iblis let out a roar, as he leapt right out of the magma, rocketing right towards Shadow. The instant it was about to bite down on the hedgehog, however, Shadow warped away, causing it to bite down on the platform instead, which propelled Sonic and Knuckles away from the snake, onto the platform. "Now!" At that point, both Rouge and Tails threw their own kind of explosives at the serpent, Rouge throwing her Bat Crackers, and Tails his Chu-Bombs. The ensuing explosion was devastating, cracking the armor around its head, and making it reel back in pain.

Before Sonic and Knuckles would know it, Shadow quickly grabbed hold of both of them, before warping right above Iblis. "You two can weaken it more, right?" he uttered, as he glanced at the two of them.

"…what do you take us for?" Sonic said with a smirk, as he began spinning into a ball. "Just give us the signal, and we'll get to it!"

"If it'll defeat that snake, then I'm for it!" Knuckles nodded, as he began spinning into a ball as well. "Ready when you are!"

"Good. Now, go!" At that point, Shadow hurled Sonic and Knuckles right at Iblis, who was still recovering from the explosions. The moment the two spinning balls struck the snake's head, the armor around it shattered, revealing only a scorched head underneath, with magma dripping out of its mouth like drool.

Before it could escape, Shadow suddenly warped right in front of it, as he held the Chaos Emerald tightly, the gem glowing quite strongly. "Time to finish this!" he yelled, as the gem's radiance became even greater. "CHAOS BLAST!"

The massive blast of Chaos Energy that erupted from Shadow was powerful enough to launch the snake high up into the air, before it began plummeting down towards the lava, but not before something fell out of its mouth; the cyan Chaos Emerald. Just as it crashed into the magma below, Shadow warped next to the emerald and grabbed it, before warping back to the platform, breathing heavily. "…done."

"Nice one, Shadow!" Sonic laughed, as he and Knuckles were being carried by Tails and Rouge respectively, just as all four of them landed by Shadow. "You think that killed it?"

"Sonic, that thing was _made out of lava._" Knuckles countered, as he glanced at Sonic with a glare. "I don't think knocking it into lava would kill it."

"Still, the Chaos Blast could've done it in…" Sonic said, as he glanced at the black hedgehog.

"…no. Somehow, I don't think we've seen the last of Iblis yet…" Shadow muttered, before he glanced at Sonic. "In any case, we got what we came for." he said, as he handed Sonic the cyan emerald. "Ready?"

"You know it!" Sonic said, as he glanced at the cyan emerald, before giving Shadow a nod. At that point, both of them raised the two gems in the air, crossing their arms as they did so. "Chaos Control!"

At that point, both of the emeralds began glowing brightly, before they were lifted out of Sonic and Shadow's grasps, circling around each other until they formed a vortex, which appeared right next to the group. "…that's gonna take us back?" Tails inquired, as he glanced at Shadow.

"It should." Shadow nodded, as he folded his arms. "Hurry up, now." As he said that, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles quickly leapt through the portal, before Rouge and Shadow prepared to enter it as well.

As Rouge was about to enter, she glanced back at Shadow, who had for some reason stopped moving. "…Shadow? What's-" she began, but she got too close to the portal to be able to finish her question, as she was sucked into it.

As it turned out, Shadow had spotted something on the path where they had come from; namely, a small, flickering flame, and a black mist right next to it. Soon, the mist faded away, which revealed that a black hedgehog stood within it; Mephiles. Without looking back, Shadow quickly began skating after Mephiles, as both the flame grew in size and intensity, and the portal closed itself…

In the plaza of Soleanna, at the moment, nobody was walking there. It seemed to be too early in the morning for anyone to even think about going outside just yet. That might have been fortunate, as a portal suddenly opened in the middle of the street, spitting out Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Rouge, along with the green and cyan Chaos Emeralds.

"…we made it back in one piece…" Knuckles muttered, as he looked around him. "Tsch… and with things like this, it doesn't look like I'll be going back to Angel Island anytime soon…"

"…hey, wait a minute!" Tails said, as he glanced at Rouge. "Where's Shadow?"

"…he…" Rouge uttered, as she glanced at the portal, just as it closed up. "…the last I saw of him, he didn't enter the portal."

"So you mean that Shadow's stuck 200 years or so in the future?" Tails uttered in complete shock. "But… how is he going to get back from there?"

"Relax, Tails. We're talking about Shadow, here!" Sonic said in an encouraging tone, as he patted Tails on the back. "I'm sure he can take care of himself."

As they talked, Rouge walked over to the green emerald, before picking it up. _…but without a Chaos Emerald… I wonder…_ she thought, before looking at the trio, who were too deep in conversation to notice her.

At that point, Sonic noticed a newspaper lying around. "Man, can't people keep the garbage in garbage cans?" he sighed, as he walked towards it, before picking it up. Out of curiosity, he started reading it a bit, when something caught his interest. "…hm."

"What is it?" Knuckles said, as he and Tails glanced at the newspaper. "…Eggman's hijacked a passenger train? For what purpose?" he uttered.

"He's even made a claim that the train will be heavily guarded by his robots, and will stop at Soleanna's terminal station…" Tails uttered, as he tilted his head. "…why would Eggman do that?"

"Apparently, he's taken over some old base on the outskirts of Soleanna, and the train goes there…" Sonic muttered, as he tilted his head. "…but that's not what I'm worried about. Look at the date."

At that point, both Tails and Knuckles noted the date the paper was printed; two days after the Festival of the Sun, the day Elise and Eggman would die aboard his battleship.

"…no way…" Tails uttered. "So… we're too late?"

"…no." Sonic said calmly, as he threw the paper away. "We've still got time. We've just got to get to the terminal when the train stops there, and-" At that point, he glanced behind him, only to realize that Rouge, along with the green emerald, was gone. "…hey, where did Rouge go?"

As the three wondered about that, the bat had snuck into an alleyway, holding her wrist communicator by her mouth. "…I'll provide a full report regarding the Scepter of Darkness shortly, sir." she said. "But at the moment, I have a priority situation to deal with. I need to get in contact with E-123 Omega, immediately."

"EEEH? THIS is where you live?" At this point, Amy and Princess Elise had gotten to the royal palace, and were standing at the bottom of the stairs. "So… when you said that your name was Elise… my gosh, you really _are_ Princess Elise of Soleanna, aren't you?" Amy said in disbelief, as she looked up at Elise.

"Um… yes, Amy." Elise nodded, as she laughed a bit nervously. "Just call me Elise, though… but again, I just can't thank you enough for saving me. I tried getting out on my own, but… well, you showed up and helped me instead."

"Oh, it was nothing…" Amy said, as she scratched her head. "But why try and get out on your own? You're the princess, so there should be a knight in shining armor who would come and save you!"

"Well..." Elise began, as she scratched her head. "…someone said this to me: "Nothing starts until you take action". And I wanted to heed his advice."

"Hmm…" Amy nodded, as she shut her eyes. "…something tells me that you have feelings for this person! Am I right?"

Hearing her say that made Elise reel back in shock. "Wha-what?" she uttered in surprise. "I- no! I mean, I just met him a few days ago! He's just a friend, nothing else…"

"Oh, don't be shy about it!" Amy laughed, as she and Elise began walking up the stairs. "Love changes everything! So, been on a date with the stud yet?"

"Wha- no, I haven't!" Elise protested, though she didn't want to come off as rude. "I told you, he's just a friend of mine…"

"You know, I once had my knight in shining armor come sweep me right off my feet…" However, Amy had gone off on a tangent, not even listening to Elise. "He rescued me from the clutches of the villain and his cold subordinate, and proceeded to whoop them good!" After saying that, she looked at Elise, who had a baffled look on her face. "I'm sure your shining knight will come as well! So I wish you good luck in finding him!"

"…um… thanks…" Elise muttered, as she couldn't help but giggle at the awkwardness of the whole conversation. _No, it really wouldn't work between us… he's only a friend, nothing more._ she thought.

At that point, when they got to the top of the stairs, they heard someone laughing. "Oh, poor delusional Amy Rose. Where is your knight now?" At that point, robots suddenly surrounded both Amy and Elise, as a hovercraft floated over them, containing none other than Doctor Eggman. "Now, if you would be so kind as to hand over the princess." As the robots raised their rifles and aimed them at the pair, Amy quickly pulled out her hammer, glaring at the robots. "…tsch… it's always the hard way with you heroes…"


	8. A Trial of Shadows

**Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 – Redux**

**A Trial of Shadows**

**The Herald of Darkness, Mephiles the Dark**

The sounds of robots being blown into scraps could be heard everywhere from a small part of the jungle on the outskirts of Soleanna. By a small shrine of sorts, what amounted to a small mountain of bits and pieces from certain robots easily pinpointed a certain red robot's whereabouts for Rouge the Bat.

"What a charming place…" Rouge noted dryly, as she looked at the pile of scrap metal, before glancing ahead, where she saw a large, red robot tearing apart a smaller, grey robot. "…could use a little interior work, but overall, a clever place to hide out." As she spoke, the red robot turned around to face her. "Omega. It's been far too long."

"…_**Rouge the Bat.**_" Omega nodded, as he walked towards Rouge, getting in front of her in a relatively short amount of time. "_**It truly has been too long. We haven't met since the Black Arms Invasion.**_"

"Indeed…" Rouge said, as she folded her arms. "Listen, there is a situation I need to fill you in on…" At that point, she began explaining the whole story to Omega; how she and Shadow got the Scepter of Darkness, how its host had sent them flying across time, how they met Sonic and his friends, how they found Omega in standby-mode, and what Shadow's current situation was.

"…_**I understand the situation.**_" Omega nodded, as he folded his arms. "_**How would you like me to assist?**_"

After he said that, Rouge pulled out the green Chaos Emerald, before handing it to the robot. "I need you to deliver this to Shadow. Don't let anyone else get to it, you hear?"

Grabbing the emerald, Omega nodded, as a small compartment in his chest opened up. "_**I have initiated my system reactivation countdown…**_" he said, before his arms pumped upwards, as if he reloaded his weapons. "_**My backup power source and spare magazines have been secured…**_"

"Good." Rouge nodded, as she smiled a bit. "Now, what's your mission, Omega?"

"…_**my mission is to bring Shadow support in the future.**_" Omega said, as he began turning away from Rouge. "_**I have placed a lockdown on my system core; no one can reprogram my mission protocol apart from me, now.**_" After saying that, he began walking away.

"I'm counting on you!" Rouge said, as she waved the red robot farewell. _Alright, Shadow… just hang in there, alright?_

Shadow stopped. After chasing Mephiles, he found himself in a completely different part of Flame Core, in a large arena of sorts that was surrounded by nothing but lava. The arena itself was a massive platform of rock, with a few spires with purple spheres on their tips jutting out here and there. _Where did he go…?_ he thought, as he glanced around him, trying to find any trace of Mephiles.

"Decided to void your return ticket, did you?" he heard a dark voice chuckle, as he spun around to see Mephiles standing on one of the spires, his arms hanging loosely by his side. "You're braver than I expected, Shadow… or perhaps just foolish."

"…what are you doing here, Mephiles?" Shadow uttered, as he folded his arms, looking up at the dark hedgehog. "Are you the cause of this world's destruction?"

"…the answer's yes…" Mephiles began, as he chuckled. "…and no." Seeing Shadow's clueless expression, the dark hedgehog couldn't help but laugh. "How deluded you are… it would be better to show you…" At that point, Mephiles snapped his fingers.

In an instant, Shadow saw some form of stasis field appear next to Mephiles, containing a certain black hedgehog within it; himself. "…what…" Shadow uttered, as he reeled back in surprise.

"Yes… that is indeed you." Mephiles chuckled, as he stretched his arms out, looking out towards the horizon. "After Iblis' flames brought the world down on its knees… what do you think happened?" As Shadow looked at the stasis field, one could swear that Mephiles smirked, if it hadn't been for his lack of a physical mouth. "…a search for the guilty."

Shadow blinked; this information took some time to process. "…search for…"

"You see, Shadow…" Mephiles continued, as he looked back at Shadow, just to properly see how baffled the hedgehog was over this revelation. "…humanity wasn't just jealous of your powers… no, they feared it." As he spoke, Shadow looked away, down at the ground. "After Iblis' initial attacks, humanity began hunting you down, pinning you as a scapegoat for this entire ordeal."

Shadow was still looking away from both Mephiles and the stasis field, as he closed his eyes. _…that's what my future's going to be like…?_ he thought.

"…Shadow. Come with me." Mephiles eventually said, as he held an arm out to Shadow. "Together, we can punish this foolish world of humanity… after all, is it not fair, to give back what was intended for you?" Then, he chuckled. "After all, you have every right to want justice."

Shadow slowly opened his eyes, as he allowed what Mephiles had said to run through his mind a few times. At that point, however, the black hedgehog began chuckling, before breaking out in full-on laughter. "You know… if you came with me with that kind of offer earlier, I might have accepted…" Shadow began…

"_Why? Why can't you understand that these humans are the parasites of this world? Absolute power is the only way to bring order to the planet... The humans must be eliminated! Shadow, open your eyes. Realize, that sympathizing with these humans, has all been a mistake!"_

"…however…" Eventually, Shadow glared up at Mephiles with a serious look. "…you're one invasion force too late for me to fall for talk like that. So whatever it is you had in mind, you can do it on your own."

"…so you would forgive humanity this folly, then?" Mephiles uttered, as he motioned back towards the stasis field, where Shadow's unconscious body was still hanging.

"…humanity does not determine my destiny." Shadow muttered, as he looked down at his hand, before clenching it into a fist. "…that's my job." he said, before glaring back at Mephiles.

"…such foolishness." Mephiles muttered with a truly disappointed look, as he stretched his arms out. At that point, a brilliant dark glow engulfed him, as his entire body structure changed. Once the glow vanished, Shadow saw that Mephiles' entire body had taken a crystalline form of sorts, and his nose and feet were gone, with some dark mist replacing his feet. The white in his eyes was also completely red, and his green eyes seemed even more demonic than before. "…very well. Let's see if you can entertain me!"

At that point, Mephiles leapt from the spire, as the stasis field vanished from sight. The instant he landed, a wave of darkness appeared from underneath him, which managed to summon forth an entire legion of Mephiles clones, all of them rushing at Shadow at top speed.

"…is that all?" Shadow scoffed, as he clenched his fists, watching the horde of clones rush at him. "As if that's going to be enough, Mephiles; you'll need an army to hold me down!" At that point, he warped right in the middle of the clones, before he began kicking every single clone he could get close to out of the field.

"Don't try to resist." Mephiles chuckled, as the clones tried ganging up on Shadow, but the black hedgehog was simply too agile to be held down by any of them, knocking them away from him every time they got in kicking distance of him.

As he kicked the Mephiles clones, they seemed to shatter and melt into black ooze, which splattered all over the arena they were fighting on. "I know who I am; deceiving me will never work, Mephiles!" Shadow said, as he began warping around a lot more, taking out multiple clones with one kick at a time.

"It's futile, no matter how many of them you defeat." Mephiles chuckled, as the clones kept reforming from the ooze, showing no sign of ever letting up their assault on Shadow. "You cannot stop it…"

Even though he didn't show it, Shadow was beginning to tire from relentlessly attacking every Mephiles clone. _…no end in sight…_ he thought, as he looked around him. _If I could only find their source of origin…_

"Trying to find me?" Mephiles chuckled, as all of a sudden, the clones leapt right towards Shadow, intending to dogpile him. "You cannot touch me… I'm your shadow."

Blinking, Shadow looked around at all the clones, before he glanced down at the ground, which led him to notice something. _…shadow…?_ he thought, and sure enough, his shadow seemed fairly abnormal compared to normal. _…that's it!_ At that point, all of the clones suddenly crashed down on Shadow, seemingly crushing him…

At that point, however, a massive explosion of Chaos Energy blasted all of the clones away from where they hid, as Shadow had removed the rings on his wrists, releasing an excessive amount of Chaos Energy from his body. "Wha- Shadow… you…!" At that point, Mephiles emerged from Shadow's shadow, crossing his arms in an attempt to shield himself from the massive energy surge.

"The game is over, Mephiles." Shadow said, as he warped right in front of Mephiles, before slamming his fist right into Mephiles' abdomen, knocking him back a good deal. Before Mephiles could recover, however, Shadow began warping all around him, delivering kick after kick, augmented by the Chaos Energy seeping from his own body, actually wounding Mephiles a great deal.

"AARGH!" The constant barrage of kicks eventually knocked Mephiles straight into a spire, shattering it immediately upon impact. "Guh… my shadows… dance for me!" At that point, the Mephiles clones rushed right at Shadow once again, but Shadow was quicker, warping away from the horde of clones, and reappearing in front of the source. "You-" Before he could even finish the thought, Shadow mercilessly kicked Mephiles in the face, sending him crashing straight into the ground. "…agh…"

"It ends now, Mephiles!" Shadow called, as he warped right above Mephiles, preparing to drop kick the dark hedgehog as a finishing move. _After this, I have to figure out-_

"No!" Just then, Mephiles shot a dark sphere right at Shadow, and as he hadn't expected Mephiles to do that, it knocked the hedgehog a great distance away, causing him to crash-land on the ground. That, combined with the stress of maintaining such an amount of Chaos Energy, along with fighting the clones, nearly knocked Shadow unconscious. "…how pitiful… you were this close, and you failed… farewell, Shadow." At that point, the clones leapt towards Shadow, intending to crush him to death.

Before they could do that, however, a hail of bullet fire suddenly cut all of the clones to shreds, spilling dark ooze everywhere on the arena. Needless to say, both Shadow and Mephiles were awestruck by this turn of events, as they turned to the source of the gunfire. "…no way…" Shadow uttered, as his eyes widened. "…Omega?"

"_**The designated time is now.**_" As it turned out, the gunfire came from none other than E-123 Omega, as his arms had morphed into gatling guns, before they shifted into a pair of hands. "_**I will assist you, Shadow.**_"

"…tsch…" Mephiles scoffed, as the ooze began forming more clones, which were all glaring at Omega. "…you're nothing but a nuisance… robot." At that point, all of the clones rushed right at Omega, ready to tear the machine apart.

At that point, however, Omega's hands retracted into his arms, as he began firing explosive energy blasts at the clones, taking out several with each and every shot, keeping the clones at bay. "…ungh…" Shadow groaned, as he weakly got on one knee, looking towards the robot. "…how… you were in standby mode…"

"_**Rouge asked me to lend you support in the future.**_" Omega said, as he was walking towards the crowd of clones, all the while blasting each of them out of the sky. "_**I prevented anyone from accessing my mission protocol; this mission took priority over anything else.**_" As he spoke, soon, the clones were nothing but a mass of dark ooze again, as Omega flew towards Shadow. "_**And she wanted me to deliver something to you.**_"

"Stay away from him!" At that point, Mephiles began firing dark spheres at Omega, who quickly stopped, before turning to face these spheres, taking them head-on, with relatively little damage. "I will not have you disrupt my plans, robot!"

"…_**you must be this Mephiles Rouge talked about.**_" Omega said, as his arms turned into gatling guns. "_**The name is E-123 Omega. You will learn to fear it.**_" At that point, Omega let loose a hail of gunfire aimed at Mephiles, but the dark hedgehog was quicker, outrunning Omega's attacks.

"Oh, I think someone else will learn to fear you, Omega…" Mephiles chuckled, as he continued firing dark spheres at Omega, but they were shot down before they could reach the robot. "But it does not matter. You've already played your part in this story!"

"_**We shall see about that.**_" Omega said, as he glanced at Shadow, without stopping his assault on Mephiles. "_**Shadow, what Rouge wanted me to give you is in my chest compartment. Hurry and use it!**_"

It took Shadow a short while to realize what Omega was talking about, before he nodded. With the robot keeping Mephiles busy, Shadow got on his feet, before stumbling towards Omega, breathing heavily as he did so.

"What could you possibly have brought from the past that would help Shadow in any way, robot?" Mephiles chuckled, as he eventually floated up in the air, as a massive dark sphere began forming over him. "There is nothing you can do, but to sink into darkness!"

"_**I don't think so.**_" Omega scoffed, as he kept firing at Mephiles, but no matter how relentless his own assault was, a horde of Mephiles' clones were quick to fly in between them and intercept the gunfire, stopping Omega from actually hitting Mephiles.

Mephiles then began to laugh at this display, as the sphere grew in size. "A valiant effort, but ultimately futile!" he laughed, as he looked down at Omega. "There will be no salvation for you, robot! Allow me to eliminate you once and for-"

"CHAOS SPEAR!" At that point, a bolt of energy suddenly passed right through Mephiles, shattering the massive sphere of darkness, and dispelling all of the clones. "…don't threaten my teammate again." As it turned out, Shadow had gotten the green Chaos Emerald back from Omega, and having used its power, he launched a surprise attack on Mephiles.

Predictably, the dark hedgehog was sent hurling right into the ground as a result of this attack. "G-gah…" he uttered, as he held the part of his body where the energy bolt had gone through him, whilst glaring at Shadow and Omega. "Y-you…" he uttered, as he weakly got back on his feet. With a grunt, he created a dark vortex which he was immediately sucked into.

"Omega, don't let him get away!" Shadow yelled, as he and the robot both rushed right towards the vortex, leaping into it before it could close on them. Once they passed through, the vortex vanished, leaving the arena empty once more.

When the vortex reopened, it was in a completely different time and place; namely, the plaza in Soleanna, around daytime. Now, people were actually walking about, and seeing Shadow and Omega just drop out of the portal from nowhere was quite the wakeup-call for most of the town's citizens. "…damn… where is he?" Shadow muttered, as he glanced all around him, seeing how shocked the people around him were. _…I doubt that they know anything…_ he thought.

"_**Mephiles is no longer in the area…**_" Omega muttered, before he glanced towards Shadow. "_**Shadow, if you need my help in finding him, just say the word.**_"

"…that would be great. Thank you." Shadow said, before he and Omega began pushing themselves past the crowd. "First, let's regroup with Rouge. She could know something we don't…"

After a while, the two managed to get to the harbors, where they happened to find the bat, who was impatiently walking in circles, until she noticed Shadow and Omega approach her. "…finally." she said with a sigh of relief, before walking towards the two of them. "Shadow, I've been gathering some information around the town… and apparently, Eggman's robots have been spotted in numerous places, hunting for you. Any clues about why that is?"

"…I suspect that they're hunting Mephiles." Shadow muttered, as he folded his arms. "It'd be easy for machines like them to make that mistake; we look practically the same."

"…_**just what is Eggman planning this time around?**_" Omega inquired, as he glanced at Rouge. "_**What are his intentions, if he is hunting this Mephiles character?**_"

"Well, I-" Rouge began, but at that point, Shadow began walking away. "Ah- Shadow! Where are you going?"

"…I'm going to get some information out of Eggman, himself." Shadow said, as he glanced at Rouge. "If you could focus on finding Mephiles, that'd be great." With that, he walked away.

"…that's Shadow for you." Rouge sighed, as she folded her arms. "Leaves before even saying hello, forgetting to thank me for figuring out how to help him out…" Then, she glanced at Omega, who looked down at her as well. "Well, at least he hasn't changed from being away for a while."

"_**Why would it change him?**_" Omega inquired, as he shook his head. "_**Shadow is Shadow, no matter what happens to him.**_"

"…yeah, you're right, Omega." Rouge chuckled, before she turned away from the robot, pressing down on her wrist communicator. "Agent Rouge calling in. Am I speaking with GUN HQ?" she said, as she placed her free arm on her hip. "Listen, I need you to give me all available information, regarding the artifact known as the Scepter of Darkness…"

"Finally back…" At the moment, Silver and Blaze had managed to get back to Soleanna, and fortunately for Silver, no one who had seen him attack Sonic from the day before seemed to be around. "Now, we need to find Mephiles, and get answers from him." Blaze said, as she closed her eyes.

"But we haven't seen him since he sent us to the past…" Silver muttered, as he scratched his head. "It could take us quite a while to…" He stopped himself, as he happened to glance ahead of him. Sure enough, Mephiles stood in the plaza, looking just like he did when Silver and Blaze had last seen him. "…Mephiles!"

"…you two…" Mephiles uttered in a cold tone, as he merely glanced at Silver and Blaze, before looking down at the ground. "…how goes the search for the Iblis Trigger?"

"Actually, I wanted to ask you about that." Blaze shot in, as she walked past Silver, looking at Mephiles. "…just who _is_ the Iblis Trigger? What's his motivation? Why does he want to destroy the world?" she asked, though Mephiles seemed more or less disinterested in her. "…hey! I'm asking you a question!"

"…why does that matter to you?" Mephiles uttered, as he looked up, without looking at Blaze. "Unless you complete your task, your future will remain the same… forever."

"Don't give me that!" At that point, Blaze suddenly grabbed Mephiles' shoulders, turning him so that he was forced to look at the cat. "This whole thing reeks! We think of a way to be rid of Iblis, and you conveniently show up to tell us how to do so! You even send us back in time, so we can get rid of him before he unleashes Iblis!" As she spoke, she shook Mephiles. "But how did you learn about it? What do you gain from letting us kill him? What are you not telling us?" Still, Mephiles didn't answer. "…you son of a-"

"Blaze!" Before Blaze could try and harm Mephiles, Silver placed a hand on her shoulder. "He's not going to answer if you grow hostile…"

"Silver, don't you get it?" Blaze said, as she glared daggers at Mephiles. "He knows too much!"

"…it's up to you, if you choose to believe me or not." Mephiles shrugged, as he began walking away. "The Iblis Trigger is currently at the terminal station. It's now or never, if you want this." As he spoke, he motioned towards the city, before he walked off.

"…if I want this…" Silver began, as he closed his eyes. For as long as he could recall, his future had been nothing but devastated by Iblis and his flames. _…a future like this… would be nice…_

"Silver!" Blaze snapped him out from his little daydream, as she folded her arms. "What do we do now? Are you still thinking of killing the Iblis Trigger?"

"…if I absolutely have to…" Silver muttered, before he glanced at Blaze. "…but I'll try and talk to him first. If I can figure out why he wants to unleash Iblis… maybe I can persuade him not to do it?"

…_he's still so naïve… _Blaze thought, as she shook her head. "…the terminal…" she sighed, as she glanced ahead of them, seeing that Mephiles was long gone. "…as much as I don't want to trust him… we should at least find him." With that, Blaze began walking towards the terminal, with Silver following her.

"…and here I thought that you would be too tired to keep it up…" Eggman chuckled, as he looked down at Amy and Elise, who were both surrounded by heaps of scrap metal. "That's the third wave I've sent down, and you've taken care of it with ease, my dear Amy. You've certainly grown since I first captured you."

"Can it, will ya?" Amy snapped, as she was holding her hammer ready, glaring at Eggman. "I'm not letting you take Elise away, so get lost!"

"…Amy…" Elise uttered, as she looked at the pink hedgehog in awe. "You…"

"Oh, give it a rest. Leave the heroic business to the heroes." Eggman scoffed, as he pressed down on a button aboard his hovercraft, which fired a spherical object at the two girls. When it hit the ground, however, it dispelled a blanket of gas, which quickly covered both Amy and Elise; as Eggman was hovering well above the ground, he was safe from its effect.

"Wha… what is…" Amy coughed, as she fell to her knees, losing her grip on her hammer. "Knock-out… gas…" At that point, she collapsed, out cold.

"…Eggman…" Elise coughed, as she glared up at the scientist. "…you…" Before she could finish, however, she collapsed as well.

"There; that takes care of that." Eggman chuckled, as a couple of robots that Amy hadn't destroyed picked Elise up, before they and Eggman flew off. "Get ready, princess; we have a train to catch!"


End file.
